The CU-Boulder iGEM team has demonstrated notable success in engineering plants. Our team focuses on utilizing soybeans to produce our proteins as it is a sustainable and inexpensive crop to mass produce. With that, our genetic modifications must be optimized for expression within the soybean. The first modifications we made was codon optimization of our bovine genes to be expressed in soybeans. The codons that code for a protein in one organism are not favored by another organism and this is the case for cow milk proteins and soybeans. The codons have been changed for the soybean optimized versions to produce the same amino acid but using a codon that the soybean is more familiar with. Another thing we had to engineer to utilize the soybean as a chassis is the export signals. The export signals for mammals and plants are significantly different, so we replaced the bovine export signal with a plant export signal for proper function in the soybean.
Further engineering techniques the CU-Boulder iGEM team has utilized and fulfilled is the use of Golden Gate cloning. The idea is when we are making the vector with all our parts such as the promoter, desired sequence, terminators, ect., that the insertion of the part cannot be reversed. This ensures that every vector going through the golden gate has the added sequence permanently attached. We also utilize very specific cut sites to ensure the desired sequence is inserted at a specific site as well as preventing the sequence from being reversed in order.
The CU-Boulder iGEM team plans to test our soybean protein sequence via western blot. This page will be updated with those results and what potential design changes we can utilize in the future.
The CU-Boulder iGEM team strongly values the conservation of our environment. Our team has a focus on using soybeans as our source for genetic modification. And we are tackling this with the use of whey proteins. This project tackles three big problems: climate change, animal cruelty, and the infant formula shortage. To start, climate change is more than just an increase in temperature; climate change also includes rising sea levels as well as changing weather patterns1. For humans, the greatest concern of climate change will be more frequent heat waves which can lead to death, and poor air quality impacting the health of millions2. In addition to the environmental impact, roughly 70% of cows reside in factory farms in inhumane conditions3. By producing cow milk in soybeans, the CU-Boulder iGEM team hopes to significantly decrease the overall greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy industry and its overall impact on climate change. Soybeans produce their own fertilizer. Additionally, with shifting the demand for dairy cows, the inhumane practice of dairy farming can be eliminated, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Today, dairy cows are subject to repeated impregnation, forced overproduction of milk, restrictive environment and poor nutrition4. Reference Reducing our dependance on cows for milk will effectively reduce these harmful practices dairy cows face today. Finally, our project addresses an alternative source of whey (Alpha-lactalbumin and Beta-lactoglobulin) used in infant formula. The whey protein is one of the main ingredients found in baby formula. This project would allow a sustainable alternative for deriving whey protein from cow milk to be used in the formula.