Prof. Dr. Zoya Ignatova
Prof. Dr. Zoya Ignatova is a biochemist and works at the Institute of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Hamburg and is our primary PI.
At the start of our idea identification phase, we met with Prof. Dr. Zoya Ignatova and Dr. Suki Albers. We planned on our mechanism to be a resistance mechanism against the agrobacterium tumefaciens. However, they advised us to choose a plant infection that has an even higher economic impact on the design of a resistance mechanism. Thus we changed our target organism from Agrobacterium tumefaciens to the fungus Magnaportha oryzae.
Dr. Mirko Himmel
Dr. Mirko Himmel is a biochemist working at the research group for biological Arms Control at the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Centre of Science and peace research at the University of Hamburg.
We consulted with Dr. Mirko Himmel regarding our biosafety issues as his research topics are microbial infection and defence mechanisms, biosecurity, preventive biological and chemical arms control and bioethics. After getting an introductory bioethics seminar, we also presented our mechanism to him and asked and discussed relevant biosafety and/or biosecurity issues. We came to the conclusion that using our mechanism for unethical purposes would be rather impractical and not likely. However, as our topic is part of genetic engineering ethical and dual-use issues of course still apply.
Dr. Dirk Becker
Dr. Dirk Becker is a biologist working at the Institute of plant science and microbiology at the University of Hamburg.
We consulted with Dr. Dirk Becker regarding our initial idea of transfecting rice, as the fungus, we identified as a problem only attacks rice. However, he explained that rice would be problematic due to the long generation time and lacking experience in working with rice as a model mechanism. As corn is much more explored as a model mechanism especially at the Institute of plant science and microbiology, he advised us to use a corn model. Thus we adopted the mechanism to implement it into a corn plant.
Dr. Maren Heese
Dr. Maren Heese is a research assistant for large scale data analysis and integration at the Institute for plant science and microbiology.
We consulted with Dr. Maren Heese regarding our mechanism. She then reminded us that mRNA degrades too quickly for it to be able to fulfil its purpose, as the ribozymes will prevent the 5´capping and 3´polyadenylation. Thus we researched different mechanisms to slow down the degradation and learned that the problems with 5’ capping could be prevented by using group I-like ribozymes (GIR), while problems with 3’ polyadenylation could be prevented by using a synthetic poly-A tail or placing the mechanism farther behind the polyadenylation signal (PAS).
Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger
Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger is a biologist working in the field of developmental biology at the Institute of plant science and microbiology.
We met with Dr. Maren Heese, Dr. Dirk Becker and Prof. Dr. Arp Schnittger to discuss our solutions for our 5´capping and 3´polyadenylation and talked about the best strategy to test a resistance mechanism as a proof-of-concept using RNAi, we planned on using saiRNA. However, they advised us to use shRNA, as we wouldn't have the time to evaluate the effectiveness of a specially designed saiRNA for our project. Thus we organized a RNAi sequence that has already been proven to be effective against YFpP (our mock target).
