Team:HZAU-China/Description

Description The chromosome replication of bacteria can be divided into three phases: B C and D $^{[1-3]}$ , and meanwhile multi-rounds of replication exist simultaneously in one cell $^{[1]}$ . So both the replication phase and the copy number of chromosome are heterogeneous in a culture.
Our project is inspired by the research about constructing 4D genomes of eukaryotes. We wonder why there isn’t a 4D genome project of prokaryote. After investigation we find that due to the complicated mechanisms of bacteria chromosome replication, there will be a huge noise while detecting its chromosome structure, which hinders the research on prokaryotic 4D genome $^{[4]}$ . Besides, the heterogenicity of cells are gathering more and more attentions in different fields, like industrial fermentation, antidrug resistance research and synthetic biology $^{[5-7]}$ . Therefore, we begin to think if there could be a method to eliminate the heterogeneity. When thinking deeper into this problem, it becomes interesting that what would happen if all the cells are synchronized, will there be a new phenomenon that can change the traditional opinions? In our mind, the ideal synchronization methods should not only simply inhibit the cell cycle but at the same time can free the inhibition according to our requirements. As we all know, the manipulation of machine is much more accurate than living beings, and there is a trend to let machine help us to control the organisms, so we want our synchronization system can also be controlled by machine and program.
References 1. Helmstetter CE. DNA synthesis during the division cycle of rapidly growing Escherichia coli B/r. J Mol Biol. 1968 Feb;31(3) 507-518. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(68)90424-5. 2. Skarstad K, Steen HB, Boye E. Cell cycle parameters of slowly growing Escherichia coli B/r studied by flow cytometry. J Bacteriol. 1983 May;154(2) 656-662. 3. Umbarger, M. A., Toro, E., Wright, M. A., Porreca, G. J., Bau, D., Hong, S. H., . . . Church, G. M. (2011). The three-dimensional architecture of a bacterial genome and its alteration by genetic perturbation. Mol Cell, 44(2), 252-264. 4. Paalme, T., Tiisma, K., Kahru, A., Vanatalu, K. & Vilu, R. Glucose-limited fed-batch cultivation of Escherichia coli with computer-controlled fixed growth rate. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 35, 312–319 (1990). 5. Baumgart, Leo & Mather, William & Hasty, Jeff. (2017). Synchronized DNA cycling across a bacterial population. Nature Genetics. 49. . 10.1038/ng.3915.