Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, 2014.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other Authors: Ron Weiss.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90678
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author Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author2 Ron Weiss.
author_facet Ron Weiss.
Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author_sort Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
collection MIT
description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, 2014.
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spelling mit-1721.1/906782019-04-11T09:20:54Z Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ron Weiss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering. Biological Engineering. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biological Engineering, 2014. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-165). Communities of microorganisms are found nearly ubiquitously on earth. They survive and proliferate through interactions within and between microbial species, which are mediated by the exchange of small signaling modules. Understanding how they regulate the interactions is both crucial and challenging, with applications including industrial biotechnology, human health and environmental sustainability. In microbial ecology, researchers have been trying to culture pure and mixed species in different conditions to elucidate the rules behind the interactions. However, the studies have been complicated by multiple variables at both the genotype and phenotype levels. To address these challenges, I demonstrate a synthetic ecological system as a proof of principle to observe microbial population level behaviors. Using a formalized design process and engineering principles, I design and construct a synthetic multi-module ecological system for population homeostasis. The synthetic ecological system consists of four functionally distinct modules - quorum sensing, high threshold killing, low threshold killing, and intermediate rescuing modules. The system is able to maintain the yeast population within a programmable range in liquid culture. However, when the same system is studied in solid medium, heterogeneity in growth rate and population size is observed. To further study the heterogeneity issue in solid medium, I develop a cell deposition platform to evaluate sub-population level or even single-cell level behavior. With a commercial Nano eNabler machine, cells with pre-defined patterns are deposited on agarose surface. This technique can be used to study microbial communities in a spatially distributed fashion. by Jingjing Sun. Ph. D. 2014-10-08T15:22:13Z 2014-10-08T15:22:13Z 2014 2014 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90678 890466343 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 165 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Biological Engineering.
Sun, Jingjing, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title_full Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title_fullStr Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title_full_unstemmed Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title_short Towards synthetic ecology : genetically programmable 4-module population control system in yeast
title_sort towards synthetic ecology genetically programmable 4 module population control system in yeast
topic Biological Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90678
work_keys_str_mv AT sunjingjingphdmassachusettsinstituteoftechnology towardssyntheticecologygeneticallyprogrammable4modulepopulationcontrolsysteminyeast