Team:XJTU-China/Sustainable
<!DOCTYPE html>
XJTU-China
Sustainable
Table of Contents
Description
Upon the excessive deforestation, grazing and reclamation of human beings, desertification has been intensified. A natural sand-fixing system, biological soil crusts, was discovered to fight for desertification. But this natural sand fixation strategy always has little effect when facing the aggressive sand. Thus in our project, our sand fixers alliance is committed to providing a more convenient and effective strategy for desertification control, that is, a symbiotic system of engineered Bacillus subtilis and cyanobacteria, to effectively produce extracellular polysaccharide to form biological soil crusts, fighting for desertification. We also designed a suicide system based on the Arabinose operon of Bacillus subtilis to prevent the engineered bacteria from escaping out of the desert environment. The engineered bacteria initiate suicide when we do not need it, so as to avoid environmental impact and to some extent ensure the biosafety.Our project will contribute to a more green and sustainable earth.
Incorporation of feedback from stakeholders involved in desertification control
Throughout the development stage of the project, we have consistently incorporated the recommendations of desertification control experts into our work. During the establishment phase of the project, we visited several authoritative institutions for desertification control, such as Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Desertification Control, Xiaojihan Forest Farm in Yuyang District, and received suggestions from many experts to control desertification regarding our work, such as Shaanxi Province the Institute of Desert Control proposed that we should simulate desert conditions more in the laboratory, and the Xiaojihan Forest Farm in Yuyang District proposed that our project should be used to reduce the cost of microbial sand control under the premise of ensuring the scope of use when it is put into use. Based on the above suggestions, our project set out to build a desert climate simulation incubator for small-scale simulation experiments. At the same time, we also made improvements to the cost and scope of desertification control of our project. In the development stage of the project , we drew feedback on whether Bacillus subtilis and cyanobacteria are drought-resistant and Symbiotic from Director Wang Lide and Associate Researcher Li Chenhua, Research Workers on Controlling Desertification. Therefore we conducted related literature search and pre-experiment on symbiotic culture of Bacillus subtilis and cyanobacteria. Finally we obtained the results that the two bacteria have strong drought resistance and symbiosis. Their feedback also played a constructive role in the simulation of the real desert temperature and humidity, wind and sand and other climatic conditions of the project’s hardware group’s desert simulation incubator. In the future development stage of the project, thanks to Researcher Qu Jianjun for giving us help in the desert test site, we plan to put the project into the test site in the future.
Potential long-term impacts on the environment, economy and society
Our project is dedicated to combating desertification. If desertification can be gradually improved, great progress will be made in the environment, economy, and social development. The improvement of land desertification can increase the groundwater level of oasis, reduce the degree of salinity, and prevent lakes from drying up. Economic and social development is also seriously affected by land desertification. Sustainable desertification control can increase soil fertility, increase the distribution of farmland and grassland, and greatly promote agricultural and animal husbandry production. For the development of society, the reduction of desertification area can promote economic development. So for the society, it will reduce the gap between the rich and the poor in the region and increase the living space for our future generations.
Positive impact on sustainable development of desertification control
Our work aims to construct a bacillus subtilis – cyanobacteria symbiosis system to efficiently produce soil crust. For our sustainable development of desertification control, our work has the following positive effects:
- Bacillus subtilis will produce large amounts of polysaccharides in desert environments.
- Cyanobacteria have an enhanced ability to bond to desert soil particles.
- Finally, it can accelerate the natural succession of desert soil crusts and speed up desertification control.
Sustainability of the project
During the entire experiment process, we recorded the detailed experimental process in the XJTU-iGEM2020 laboratory notebook to ensure the repeatability and sustainability of the project, allowing other teams to quickly take over the project for further work.
All in all, our project promotes the sustainable development of desertification control by microorganisms through natural succession of soil crusts.