Team:Tuebingen
PacMn - Phytochelatin assisted complementation for Manganese
Environmental heavy metal pollution has raised concerns for water quality and human health. In fact, it was
found that due to climate change, and thus, rising groundwater temperatures in Germany, manganese (Mn2+)
concentrations in local water resources increase. Accordingly, we propose an approach for the measurement
and retention of Mn2+-ions in which we use genetically engineered E. coli as a bifunctional biosensor. Our
system contains a riboswitch, which triggers a fluorescent signal in the presence of Mn2+-Ions, in
combination with induced complexion for clearance of Mn2+-Ions with phytochelatin proteins. Due to its
sequence complexity, we modified the phytochelatin sequence in silico, and modeled the variants’ structures
to subsequently evaluate their stability using Molecular Dynamics simulation. Upon successful cloning, the
functionality and detection range of our system is assessed using titrated Mn2+, prior to investigating the
signal kinetics and effects of cell density, as well as heavy metal retention in vivo.
