Team:HTHS Trussville AL

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Revision as of 16:36, 7 March 2014

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	Team HTHS_Trussville_AL

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The Hewitt-Trussville High School team consists of seven students in the Biomedical Sciences Academy. Trussville, Alabama is rural community of approximately 20,000 people found eighteen miles northwest of Birmingham in Jefferson County, and Hewitt-Trussville High School has approximately 1300 students. Over the last four years, we have navigated our way through the Project Lead The Way biomedical sciences curriculum and worked together in labs. The seven members of our team are all 2014 seniors including Jessica Bacon, Darcy Echols, Nicole Hardesty, Nikki Newman, Sikandar Raza, Connor Staggs, and Chloe Wilks. We also have an amazing mentor from the Hudson-Alpha Institute of Biotechnology, Dr. Bob Zahorchak. But, most importantly, we want to save the endangered snail populations in the Cahaba River by developing a cheap and efficent phosphate detection plasmid for the Alabama Department of Environmental Managaement to use! #Savethesnails

Due to rising use of chemical based fertilizers, the runoff of harmful chemicals such as phosphate (PO43-) and nitrate (NO3-) into public water sources has increased. This accumulation of chemicals in streams and lakes is harmful to the environment. PO43- runoff in rivers is detrimental to aquatic life forms such as the Leptoxis compacta, a gastropod that was believed to have been extinct in 2000; however, in May of 2011 the Leptoxis compacta was rediscovered in the Cahaba River. PO43- is a food source for algae and as the levels of PO43- increase, the number of algae blooms increase and cover the surface of the water. This blocks sunlight so the energy cannot get to the bottom of the river. Currently tests are chemical in nature and specific to only certain forms of PO43- (testing only organic phosphate or orthophosphate). This research revolves around the creation of a biological plasmid to test for all forms of PO43- in a sample of water. Using a shuttle vector, the plasmid is first grown in E. coli, and then transferred into a specific type of yeast called S. cerevaise, which contains an outer sensor for PO43- .The sensor tests for the presence of PO43- because it is a food source for the yeast. If PO43- is present, then the yeast uses it for energy development; however, if no phosphate is present in the environment, then the sensor sends a cascading signal to a protein called Pho4, which binds to a gene called Pho5 to initiate the phosphate starvation cycle. This mechanism allows the yeast to produce its own phosphate.

The plasmid that is inserted into S. cerevaise contains the genetic sequence for the Pho5 promoter that when activated will turn on a Red Florescent Protein (RFP). The Pho5 promoter will be removed from one plasmid using the restriction enzymes EcoRI and BamHI. An adaptor will then be used to convert the sticky end produced by BamHI into a second compatible EcoRI sticky end. After performing Polymerase Chain Reaction, this fragment of DNA will then be inserted into a new plasmid using 3A assembly. The new plasmid will already posses the RFP gene and antibiotic resistance which will be used to make competent cells. The recombinant plasmid will then be grown in E. coli before being shuttled into the yeast cells. The Pho5 promoter in the new plasmid will then be able to receive the Pho4 protein if it is initiated when PO43- is not present. When the Pho4 is bound to the Pho5 on the plasmid, the RFP gene will be activated. The RFP will cause the yeast to turn bright red, signaling that there is no PO43- present; if the yeast does not turn bright red, then PO43- is present in the environment. Therefore the plasmid serves as a qualitative and quantitative method to test for the presence of PO43- in a water sample, which in turn creates a biological mechanism that is not hazardous to monitor levels of PO43- .

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