About the Project
Biological degradation of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and assimilation of the corresponding monomers ethylene glycol and terephthalate (TPA) into central metabolism offer an attractive route for bio-based molecular recycling and bioremediation applications. For example, engineered cells with the ability to degrade xenobiotics and convert the waste into energy for cellular growth would provide circular plastic bioeconomy opportunities whilst addressing environmental pollution. The tph gene cluster has been demonstrated to facilitate the cellular uptake, degradation and assimilation of TPA in central metabolism (Sasoh et al., 2006). We recently performed phylogenetic and genomic context analysis of the tph gene cluster revealing homologous operons as a genetic resource for future biotechnological and metabolic engineering efforts towards circular plastic bio-economy solutions (Gautom et al., 2021). This PhD project will seek to develop new genetic regulatory tools for bioremediation applications in sensing and control. This will involve the bioinformatics (mining homologues gene cluster and regulatory elements, promoter architecture analysis), promoter engineering (library generation, high-throughput screening and sequence–function analysis), and biosensor development (generation of design rules, performance optimisation and application). This project and training will equip you with skills in advanced synthetic biology, data mining and analysis suitable for future careers in both academia or industry.
Sasoh, M. et al. Characterization of the terephthalate degradation genes of Comamonas sp. strain E6. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72, 1825–1832 (2006).
Gautom, T. et al. Structural basis of terephthalate recognition by solute binding protein TphC. In revision doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-358367/v1
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/neil.dixon/
dixonlab.org
Entry Requirements
Applicants must have obtained or be about to obtain a First or Upper Second class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of science, engineering or technology.
Applicants interested in this project should make direct contact with the Primary Supervisor to arrange to discuss the project further as soon as possible.
How To Apply
To be considered for this project you MUST submit a formal online application form - full details on how to apply can be found on the BBSRC DTP website www.manchester.ac.uk/bbsrcdtpstudentships
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the success of The University of Manchester, and is at the heart of all of our activities. The full Equality, diversity and inclusion statement can be found on the website https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/research/apply/equality-diversity-inclusion/
References
1) Gautom T, Dheeman D, Levy C, Butterfield T, Alvarez Gonzalez G, Le Roy P, Caiger L, Fisher K, Johannissen L, Dixon N (2021) Structural basis of terephthalate recognition by solute binding protein TphC in revision https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-358367/v1
2) Berepiki, A., Kent, R., Machado, L. F. M., & Dixon, N. (2020). Development of High-Performance Whole Cell Biosensors Aided by Statistical Modeling. ACS Synthetic Biology, 9(3), 576-589. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00448
3) Ferreira Marques Machado, L., Currin, A., & Dixon, N. (2019). Directed evolution of the PcaV allosteric transcription factor to generate a biosensor for aromatic aldehydes. Journal of Biological Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13036-019-0214-z
4) Lagator, M., Sarikas, S., Steinrück, M., Toledo-Aparicio, D., Bollback, J. P., Tkacik, G., & Guet, C. C. (2020). Structure and Evolution of Constitutive Bacterial Promoters. bioRxiv.
5) Blin, K, Wolf, T, Chevrette, MG, Lu, X, Schwalen, CG, Kautsar, SA, Suarez Duran, HG, de los Santos, ELC, Uk Kim, H, Nave, M, Dickschat, JS, Mitchell, DA, Shelest, E, Breitling, R, Takano, E, Lee, SY, Weber, T & Medema, MH (2017), 'antiSMASH 4.0––improvements in chemistry prediction and gene cluster boundary identification', Nucleic acids research. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkx319
Continue with Facebook
