Constructing an Ethanol Sensor
Department
Biological Sciences
Major
Biological Sciences and Chemistry
Research Advisor
Shannon, Katie
Westenberg, David J.
Advisor's Department
Biological Sciences
Funding Source
Missouri S&T Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experiences (OURE) Program; Biological Sciences Department; Chemical Engineering Department
Abstract
In Pichia pastoris, alcohol oxidase (AOX) is the first enzyme in the methanol utilization pathway. This enzyme is encoded by the AOXI gene. If exposed to an environment containing both methanol and ethanol, P. pastoris preferentially metabolizes ethanol. The production of the AOX enzyme is subject to the concentration of ethanol. This diauxic metabolism may be utilized as an ethanol sensor. When the AOXI promoter is fused with a gene encoding a fluorescent protein, the activation of the AOXI promoter may be detected by direct observation of fluorescence. Our project is the development of a device containing the AOXI promoter fused with a fluorescent protein gene to create an inexpensive ethanol sensor for a variety of applications. The concentration of ethanol in the environment may be deduced from the time period between exposure of the microorganism carrying the device to ethanol and methanol, until the detection of fluorescence.
Biography
Rachel Klapper is a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering. She plans on attending graduate school this fall in Biotechnology Engineering.
Research Category
Sciences
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Location
Upper Atrium/Hallway
Presentation Date
08 Apr 2009, 9:00 am - 11:45 am
Constructing an Ethanol Sensor
Upper Atrium/Hallway
In Pichia pastoris, alcohol oxidase (AOX) is the first enzyme in the methanol utilization pathway. This enzyme is encoded by the AOXI gene. If exposed to an environment containing both methanol and ethanol, P. pastoris preferentially metabolizes ethanol. The production of the AOX enzyme is subject to the concentration of ethanol. This diauxic metabolism may be utilized as an ethanol sensor. When the AOXI promoter is fused with a gene encoding a fluorescent protein, the activation of the AOXI promoter may be detected by direct observation of fluorescence. Our project is the development of a device containing the AOXI promoter fused with a fluorescent protein gene to create an inexpensive ethanol sensor for a variety of applications. The concentration of ethanol in the environment may be deduced from the time period between exposure of the microorganism carrying the device to ethanol and methanol, until the detection of fluorescence.
Comments
Joint project with Cory Cheatham, Brian Pink and Jackie Schneider