Part:BBa_K4452015

Ferritin with prSSG1 transit peptide

Pyrococcus furiosus ferritin (PFt), an efficient iron storage protein, linked to GFP with expression under a columella cell-specific promoter, PLT-2, and with an N-terminus signal peptide to imports the ferritin into statoliths.

This construct is designed for implementing root magnetotropism by overexpressing ferritin in statoliths of columella cells in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background

To restore directional root growth in microgravity, Hopkins iGEM 2022 proposed that the existing gravitropic mechanisms can be engineered to respond to an artificial cue. We set out to engineer roots to grow in the direction of magnetic field gradients: magnetotropism.

Plants sense gravity via statoliths—starch-laden organelles in root tip columella cells—which sediment due to their weight. Statolith sedimentation triggers changes in the efflux of auxin, a universal plant hormone that induces plant cell elongation. Polarized auxin accumulation along the upper and lower sides of roots causes differential elongation of cells, guiding root growth in the direction of gravity.

We predicted that filling statoliths with iron-loading proteins, like ferritin, would allow the statoliths to move in response to a magnetic gradient. For our project we designed a genetic construct that allows for ferritin to be expressed in Arabidopsis and imported into statoliths.

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]

  Illegal BglII site found at 95
  Illegal BglII site found at 527
  
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]

  Illegal BsaI site found at 2430
  Illegal BsaI.rc site found at 2709