Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Cyanobacteria
- Creators: Jones, Christopher
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Measuring changes in concentration within a dynamic system can be accomplished with a simple Arduino powered system. Currently, the system is utilized in cyanobacteria CO2 fixation experiments, where the fixation rates of multiple cultures can be measured simultaneously. The system employs solenoids in parallel and can be applied for n number of outlet streams, all are connected to one large manifold which feeds to a CO2 concentration probe. In the future, the system can be modified to fit other simple dynamic gas systems.
ContributorsInnes, Sean (Author) / Nielsen, David (Thesis director) / Jones, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Cyanobacteria have the potential to efficiently produce L-serine, an industrially important amino acid, directly from CO2 and sunlight, which is a more sustainable and inexpensive source of energy as compared to current methods. The research aims to engineer a strain of Cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 that increases L-serine production by mutating regulatory mechanisms that natively inhibit its production and encoding an exporter. While an excess of L-serine was not found in the supernatant of the cell cultures, with further fine tuning of the metabolic pathway and culture conditions, high titers of L-serine can be found. With the base strain engineered, the work can be extended and optimized by deleting degradation pathways, tuning gene expression levels, optimizing growth conditions, and investigating the effects of nitrogen supplementation for the strain.
ContributorsAbed, Omar (Author) / Nielsen, David (Thesis director) / Jones, Christopher (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Acyl Carrier Protein (ACP) is a small, acidic protein that plays an essential role in fatty acid synthesis by elongating fatty acid chains. ACP was isolated from an extract of a modified strain of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 that contains a thioesterase and from which the acyl-ACP synthetase has been deleted. Using ammonium sulfate precipitation to isolate a crude protein fraction containing ACP, immunoblot analysis was performed to determine relative amounts of free and acylated-ACP in the cell. The nature of fatty acids attached to ACP was determined by creating butylamide derivatives that were analyzed using GC/MS. Immunoblot analysis showed a roughly 1:1 ratio of acylated ACP to free ACP in the cell depending on the nutritional state of the cell. From GC/MS data it was determined that palmitic acid was the predominate component of acyl groups attached to ACP. The results indicate that there is a significant amount of acyl-ACP, a feedback inhibitor of early steps in the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway, in the cell. Moreover, the availability of free ACP may also limit fatty acid biosynthesis. Most likely it is necessary for ACP to be overexpressed or to have the palmitic acid cleaved off in order to synthesize optimal amounts of lauric acid to be used for cyanobacterial biofuel production.
ContributorsWu, Sharon Gao (Author) / Vermaas, Willem (Thesis director) / Redding, Kevin (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05