Plant Sentinels to Explosives
Abstract
The Medford lab has in the past developed a synthetic biology-enabled, plant-based detector for the explosive substance TNT. However, both response and the product was not suitable for operational use. The present project is directed toward significantly improving the functionality of synthetic biology-enabled plant sentinels by using advanced computational protein design algorithms (available through the Baker lab at University of Washington, that will permit development of analyte-binding proteins with nanomolar level affinity. Coupled with testing systems in protoplasts and whole plants that are more accurate, faster and reliable than previous methods, the team is poised to apply this technology to the development of new sentinel plant systems. The present proposal aims to develop plant sentinels that can detect two other candidate explosive substances : CL20 (2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane) and HMX (octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine). The aim is to computationally design a binding protein with an affinity (for each of these target compounds) in the micromolar range in approximately 6 months, followed by further refinement over an additional 6 months to obtain protein designs with affinities in the nanomolar range. Once these binding proten designs are translated to a Transcriptional Sensor the team predicts sensitivities in the ppM (parts per Million) to ppB (parts per Billion). Transferring this sensor into plants is expected to extend to the sensitivity even further to parts per Trillion (ppT). Hence, the plant sentinels are well within a range needed for real-world applications.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 08, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512472
Entities
People
- June I. Medford
Organizations
- Colorado State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy