Team:Minnesota/Description
Minnesota
Goal:
Our goal was to create a cheap and mass producible molluscicide that is able to
target Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) specifically, in order to decrease the population
and impact of the invasive species on Minnesota lake and river systems.
Background:
Zebra mussels have had a large impact locally in Minnesota as well as
nationally. It is estimated that zebra mussels will result in $3.1 billion for repairs of damaged
piping systems over the next ten years. Current treatments for zebra mussels are costly and not
always effective. A new pesticide, Zequanox, highly specific for zebra mussels has been released
to consumers and preliminary tests have shown it to be 90% effective against zebra mussels, but
one treatment can cost local governments thousands of dollars. Zequanox is composed of heat
killed Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CL145. The Minnesota iGEM team has proposed a
system based upon the toxin, cytolysin FitD, released by the Pseudomonas fluorescens strain that
could be released into the lakes with greater toxicity and at a lower price. UMN iGEM Team
proposes the creation of a modified E. coli strain that expresses cytolysin FitD and has an
auxotrophy control system to allow for the release of live bacteria into the lake. With the
continuous production of the FitD toxin, an increased number of zebra mussels will be killed,
which limit the number of treatments needed for the lake. Additionally, the auxotrophy system
will limit the number of replications the E. coli can go through so the modified bacteria will be
restricted in a temporal manner, which serves as a safety mechanism for the release of a
genetically modified organism in the environment. The system will be modelled in E. coli and
later will be transferred into Pseudomonas fluorescens.
