Team:SCU-China/Human Practices
In the progress of the project design, we tried to use synthetic biology to solve the problem that seasonal climate affects agricultural production. Since our expected product, abscisic acid (ABA), is used only a limited number of times a year, a suitable storage carrier is very important. After discussion and consulting literature, we finally decided to use yeast. The main reason was that it is widely used in progress of making food in China. When abscisic acid is not needed, it can also be stored in sour dough and kept moderately active, also it can be activated quickly in the event of a late spring cold (LSC).
However, our team’s knowledge and experience of yeast and dough fermentation is very limited, so we visited Angel Yeast, the largest yeast producer in China, to learn more about it. On the basis of full understanding of our project, the head of the company raised some potential problems in terms of production for us. For example, whether the yeast strains in the laboratory can be used in daily life to ensure the normal fermentation of dough, and so on. After listening to their suggestions, we performed a comparison experiment on the fermentation efficiency of Angle yeast with EGY48 strain.
See Results
In addition, in order to further understanding the present situation of the application of yeast in dough fermentation, we carried out two aspects of work:
The first is the questionnaire survey. We collect the answers of over 400 people from all classes and obtained the public’s feedback on the expected function, acceptability, price, and other aspects of engineered yeast. From the results of the questionnaire, we learned that the public hold positive views on genetically modified yeast, but at the same time, they requested higher demand on our yeast, such as producing some nutrients. The engineered yeast which can just synthesize ABA has large seasonal and regional restrictions, and obviously, it does not meet the needs of the public. Therefore, we added a synthetic pathway for the production of PA to the original project after consulting literature, making our yeast more market adapted.
On the other hand, we have obtained some information about the production process or finished products of special pasta from more than 10 iGEM teams from all over China. In the process of data collection, we further understand that there are great regional differences in the types of pasta, and the pasta habits in various regions are also distinct. This process reminds us that the people in some hot and humid areas with rich rainfall take rice as their staple food and seldom produce fermented pasta. How to promote the products in these areas, and whether the engineered yeast can be preserved in rice products will be the problems we need to solve in the future.
We also considered that the HP mentioned above cannot cover the main users, farmers. So we went to Pidu District in Sichuan province, and conducted on-site investigation and interview. An enthusiastic farmer invited us to his home and made fermented pasta together with us. Through this visit, we found that farmers are not really aware of LSC and are not concerned about the serious agricultural losses it causes. It is due to two main causes: Farmers and local governments do not receive early warning that LSC is approaching; They are unable to judge from the weather of the previous days whether LSC will occur in the coming days. Therefore, we hope to develop an LSC prediction software to help local governments and farmers know the occurrence, intensity and duration of LSC early so that farmers can prevent for the weather in advance. The trip gave us a glimpse of the target customers’ views on our project. Most farmers said that Sichuan province was not the main area of LSC, so they didn’t think it was necessary to use ABA. However, for some regions with greater temperature differences such as the three northeastern provinces, our project is still of great practical value. Some farmers also mentioned that the existing main methods to prevent the late spring cold are to cover plastic film or build greenhouses, so a new and convenient prevention method is valuable for farmers everywhere in the world. Therefore, our project needs to be improved in terms of cost and ease of use in order to cope with the competition of similar products in the market.
To confirm this, we asked Prof. Hong Tan at the Chinese Academy of Science in Chengdu, China, to identify the role that ABA plays in plants’ response to the LSC. Professor Tan has rich experience in the study of LSCq, and has applied the patent of ABA synthesis by Botrytis cinerea. According to Professor Tan, ABA is theoretically one of the indispensable hormones for plants to survive the LSC, and supplemental application of ABA can indeed improve the cold tolerance of crops. However, she also suggested that we need to consider whether the production of ABA from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is enough to work. Under this suggestion, we added the experiment of HPLC part to verify whether the yeast can successfully synthesize ABA, and explore whether its yield meets the expected requirements.
Finally, in the process of our project, the communication between NCiC and CCiC also helped us a lot. The problems raised by some teams, such as microbial safety and gene contamination, were all omissions in our design and experiment. Their suggestions broadened our minds and made our subject more perfect.
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