Publisher
The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
Bacteria possess natural mechanisms allowing them to adapt to the environment and communicate with each other, processing large amounts of information in parallel. Cyanobacteria survive in a variety of environments and respond to light. Vibrio harveyi, a marine bacteria, and Pseudomonas aureofaciens, a wheat bacteria, communicate using small molecules; V. harveyi bioluminesces in response to an inter-species signaling molecule, while P. aureofaciens produces phenazine in response to its intra-species signaling molecule. These inherent signaling mechanisms can be engineered to create rapid, specific, modular Bacteria-Based Molecular Assay Detection (B-MAD) systems. ABMAD system designed to detect the human pathogen Clostridium perfringens serves as proof of concept for completely biological information processing units. The B-MAD system consists of three engineered cyanobacteria cells used in combination to detect Clostridium perfringens, a causative agent in gas gangrene, food poisoning and antibioticassociated diarrhea. The B-MAD system is activated by blue/UV-A light and responds to AI-2, a small molecule produced by C. perfringens and perfringolysin 0, a C. perfringens pore-forming toxin. It is possible, using the yellow fluorescence and bioluminescence outputs from the B-MAD system, to unambiguously detect C. perfringens. The design of the B-MAD system as well as the fabrication of components for the Blue Light Converter are reported.Type
textThesis-Reproduction (electronic)