Line 146: | Line 146: | ||
/></a> | /></a> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#overview">Overview</a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#understanding-the-problem">Understanding the Problem</a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#identifying-thymol">Identifying Thymol</a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#part-design">Part Design </a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#experimental-design"> Experimental Design</a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
− | <a href="# | + | <a href="#future-directions">Future Directions</a> |
<br> | <br> | ||
Line 176: | Line 176: | ||
<!-- BODY --> | <!-- BODY --> | ||
<div class="intro-body"> | <div class="intro-body"> | ||
− | <div class = " | + | <div class = "overview" id="overview"> |
<h2>OVERVIEW</h2> | <h2>OVERVIEW</h2> | ||
<img class="img-fluid"style="width:100%;"src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2020/5/5a/T--Calgary--thymolpipeline.png" /> | <img class="img-fluid"style="width:100%;"src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2020/5/5a/T--Calgary--thymolpipeline.png" /> | ||
Line 235: | Line 235: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<hr> | <hr> | ||
− | <div class = " | + | <div class = "identifying-thymol" id="identifying-thymol"> |
<h2>IDENTIFYING THYMOL</h2> | <h2>IDENTIFYING THYMOL</h2> | ||
<h4>Why produce an anthelmintic?</h4> | <h4>Why produce an anthelmintic?</h4> | ||
Line 375: | Line 375: | ||
</p> | </p> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <h4>iGEM 2021</h4> | ||
+ | <p> | ||
+ | Below is our timeline for next year. blurb </p> | ||
+ | <br> | ||
+ | <img class="img-fluid"style="width:100%;"src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2020/e/e7/T--Calgary--cellulasestimeline.png" /> | ||
+ | <br><br> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <h4>Iterate and Optimize: Beyond iGEM</h4> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <p> blurb here | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | |||
</div> | </div> | ||
Line 383: | Line 396: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<hr> | <hr> | ||
− | <div class = " | + | <div class = "references" id="references"> |
<h2>References</h2> | <h2>References</h2> | ||
<p> | <p> |
Revision as of 00:48, 28 October 2020
OVERVIEW
Optimizing Nutrient Absorption Through Anthelmintics
To allow our target communities to maximize micronutrient and vitamin A absorption in between deworming seasons, we will engineer our yeast to produce thymol which is naturally found in thyme leaves. This will allow our yeast consumers to alleviate damage and destroy parasitic worms in the intestines. Our initial goal is to create a proof of concept in the lab. To do this, we followed the engineering design cycle to build our project:
- Understand the Problem
- Research and Ideate Solutions: Identifying Thymol
- Design Solutions: Part design
- Design Solutions: Experimental design
- Create and Test: Thymol Testing
- Evaluate
Over the next year, we will be working towards a lab proof of concept for thymol testing and production. This engineering design cycle will repeat once we have accomplished this and look towards community implementation. For more information on our plans for next year and beyond iGEM, please refer to the Future Directions section.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Inadequate Access to Healthcare
Mass-supplementation of Vitamin A to deficient regions have been ongoing for decades.However, even with biannual vitamin A supplementation for children and biofortified crops such as golden rice, intestinal parasites still play the villain in preventing the vitamin’s assimilation by perforating the intestines. Organizations such as the UN, WHO, and the Bill Gates Foundation couple biannual vitamin supplementation with deworming using agents like albendazole and mebendazole, but lack of clean water and proper footwear allow these parasites to return and thrive in the intestines.
Parasitic worms are among the most widespread human infections to date, affecting 2 billion people worldwide. The most common of these are Ascaris lumbricoides or the giant roundworm, hookworms, and Trichuris trichiura or the human whipworm. These worms may be obtained from direct contact with the soil, or through improper measures in hygiene. These worms cause a variety of symptoms such as stunted growth, decreased metabolic rates, physical and mental fatigue, and malnutrition (Kumar, Jain, & Jain, 2014). Since these parasites perforate the intestines, nutrition absorption is severely inhibited, causing several micronutrient supplementation programs to falter.
Albendazole has been used as an effective cure for intestinal worm infections. When treating roundworms it has a cure rate of 98.9% and egg reduction rates of 99.6%. For hookworms, it is 56.8% and 97.7% respectively, while in whipworms it is 10.% and 73.3%. However, even with these highly effective drugs the worms return and thrive until the next round of deworming because of poor hygiene due to lack of access to clean water and proper footwear.
Talking to Dr. John Gilleard and Dr. Paul E. Mains from the University of Calgary, we found out that these drugs were first intended for animals but were later implemented in humans. They believe that intestinal parasites will sooner or later develop drug resistances just as they have discovered in sheep and cattle models, which is why development of new treatments should be kept on the radar.
PART DESIGN
Thymol has been previously expressed in microbial systems such as S. cerevisiae (Aly and Abo-Sereih 2020). Since thymol is a simple monoterpenoid, its expression in Yarrowia lipolytica would not be too complex. This is because the organism is capable of producing geranyl diphosphate through the non-mevalonate (MEP) pathway, and would only need two additional genes to produce thymol. These genes are the TvTPS1 terpene synthase gene and the CYP71D178 cytochrome P450 gene from Thymus vulgaris, better known as thyme.
Gauging Thymol Production Levels
Since Dr. Gupta advised us to observe more precaution with regards to the safety and efficacy of thymol, we will be expressing the compound under the control of two different promoters. Our first promoter is the Translation Elongation Factor 1 (TEF1) promoter which is a well-known strong constitutive promoter in Y. lipolytica (Hong et al. 2012). Our second promoter is the Proline Dehydrogenase 2 (POX2) promoter which is known to be a relatively weaker promoter in Y. lipolytica (Shabir Hussain et al. 2017). In the future when we express thymol in our chassis, we will quantify its production and determine which is better suited to our end users’ safety.
Our construct design will follow that of cellulase engineering and will be assembled through Gibson assembly, except without a signal peptide. This is because we do not need to secrete thymol as it is meant to be consumed as part of the yeast. For a more detailed description of our construct design, please click here.
For our proof-of-concept, we will be cloning and expressing this construct containing both TvTPS1 and CYP71D178 without any cellulases in Y. lipolytica. Once we have proven its functionality, we will then include these genes to our third Y. lipolytica strain containing the NpBGS beta-glucosidase using Gibson Assembly.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Thoughtful design of experiments
Below are detailed descriptions of the planned steps/experiments we will conduct to integrate the cellulase enzymes into the Y. lipolytica genome. Our first experiments will be carried out in Escherichia coli DH5α for cloning and Gibson Assembly, after which the gene cassettes will be introduced to Y. lipolytica. The experimental workflow will follow the depiction in figure 5.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
What we've achieved this year
✔ Created our constructs for thymol production in Y. lipolytica
✔ Collected our reagents and C. elegans for testing
✔ Extensively planned all of our experiments and made troubleshooting plans
iGEM 2021
Below is our timeline for next year. blurb
Iterate and Optimize: Beyond iGEM
blurb here
References
Paper 1