Team:UrbanTundra Edmonton
UrbanTundra_Edmonton
Welcome to iGEM 2017!
Project Description
Our team’s project is the Remediation of Toxic Martian Soil; this is a continuation of our team’s work from last year. In 2009, NASA’s Pheonix lander identified traces of perchlorate in Martian soil. The perchlorate ion is toxic to humans and also inhibits plant growth. This may prove to be a major barrier towards future Mars colonization missions. Our research aims to genetically modify E. coli in order to reduce this perchlorate into its base elements, oxygen and chlorine. The metabolic pathway for the reduction of the perchlorate ion has two steps: first a reduction to chlorite and then further to oxygen and chlorine. This is accomplished by the enzymes perchlorate reductase and chlorite dismutase, respectively. Last year, we were able to successfully clone and express the chlorite dismutase gene into E. coli, completing the latter half of the metabolic pathway. This year, we are going to focus on expressing the perchlorate reductase gene.
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