Isolation and Implementation of the Electron Shuttling Pathway from Geobacter into Escherichia coli

Presenter Information

Daniel Roush

Department

Biological Sciences

Major

Biological Sciences

Research Advisor

Westenberg, David J.

Advisor's Department

Biological Sciences

Funding Source

Missouri S&T Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experiences (OURE) Program; Missouri S&T Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Energy Research and Development Center; Materials Research Center

Abstract

Certain bacteria, like Geobacter sulfurreducens, are naturally exoelectrogenic. In these organisms, electrons are shuttled outside of the cell during metabolism to reduce metals in the environment. This requires the use of c-type cytochromes; electron carrying proteins located on the periplasmic side of the cytoplasmic membrane. For c-type cytochromes to work properly, they must be transported to the correct location within the cell and covalently bound to a heme. In previous work, we theoretically isolated four outer membrane cytochrome genes and two combinations of those genes into plasmids. In this work, we confirm the presence of the cytochrome gene sequences in our plasmid set and worked to characterize the expression of the gene set in Escherichia coli.

Biography

Daniel is a senior in Biological Sciences. He has held various leadership positions within the International Genetically Engineered Machines student design team. Throughout his undergraduate career he has participated in various research projects under the guidance of faculty. After graduation he plans on continuing education and pursuing an M.D./Ph. D. with emphasis in clinical microbiology.

Research Category

Sciences

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Document Type

Presentation

Location

Carver Room

Presentation Date

06 Apr 2011, 9:00 am - 9:30 am

Comments

Joint project with Meghan Ray and Nichole Hurd

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Apr 6th, 9:00 AM Apr 6th, 9:30 AM

Isolation and Implementation of the Electron Shuttling Pathway from Geobacter into Escherichia coli

Carver Room

Certain bacteria, like Geobacter sulfurreducens, are naturally exoelectrogenic. In these organisms, electrons are shuttled outside of the cell during metabolism to reduce metals in the environment. This requires the use of c-type cytochromes; electron carrying proteins located on the periplasmic side of the cytoplasmic membrane. For c-type cytochromes to work properly, they must be transported to the correct location within the cell and covalently bound to a heme. In previous work, we theoretically isolated four outer membrane cytochrome genes and two combinations of those genes into plasmids. In this work, we confirm the presence of the cytochrome gene sequences in our plasmid set and worked to characterize the expression of the gene set in Escherichia coli.