Vishal

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=__Bio __=

Hi I'm Vishal Mummareddy and I am a rising sophomore. I live in Reston, Virginia which is 20 minutes away from Washington D.C. I participate in multiple clubs and sports at school which include: Model U.N., Robotics , Debate, Winter Track, and Tennis. My favorite sport is Tennis which I have been playing for 8 years. I am currently ranked in the top 20 in the state of Virginia and I am constantly playing tournaments in order to improve my ranking.

I wanted to attend this summer camp because I have taken many engineering classes and many biology classes. However, I never got an opportunity to combine both of my interests into one field. Synthetic biology combined both my love of engineering and biology into one subject. Before coming to this camp, I have been to other camps that taught me about neurology and the anatomy of the human body. In school, I have just taken Biology Honors and am going to take Chemistry next year. During my past spring break I went to my Aunt's house in Pennsylvania. She is a scientist at a pharmaceutical company called Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK). For one week, I shadowed some of the scientists and got to learn about science. I observed research on the effect of compounds on reducing heart cell size in heart failure patients. I also got to see live heart stem cells, sequence DNA, replicate DNA and genetically engineer DNA. This experience sparked an interest in science for me.

=__Design Project: Using Cyanobacteria to Increase the Yield of Glucose in Plant Cells __=

Ethanol is a biofuel that is mainly used as an additive for gasoline. It comes in various concentrations that can be used in cars. World ethanol production for transportation has tripled from 2000 to 2007. Ethanol is a biofuel that can be made from many renewable resources. The most common source of ethanol comes from corn; however, corn does not have the highest yield of ethanol. Switch grass is actually the most productive plant for the making of ethanol. The production of Ethanol is a long and complicated process but starts out with two organic compounds: cellulose and hemicellulose. These compounds make up the cell wall of most plant cells. Cellulose and hemicellulose are made of thousands of glucose units. So essentially, if we can increase the production of glucose, we can then increase the amount of cellulose and hemicellulose which will lead to more ethanol. This is extremely important because currently, ethanol is not the number one choice for fuel. So if we can make it more economical, consumers will choose to use ethanol, which will then decrease our need for fossil fuels. My design will be able to increase the production of glucose in switch grass so more ethanol can be produced.

The first challenge is getting a bacteria into the plant. Pseudomonas syringae is a plant pathogen that can enter plants through the stomata. The first stage is getting the bacteria on the plant. The leaf of plants is actually a great place for bacteria to grow and replicate. In order for P. syringae to invade the plant, it must release virulence effector proteins into the plant. These proteins trick the stomata to open and let the bacteria inside. Once this is done, bacteria will start to travel into the spongy mesophyll of the plant. This process will have to be engineered into cyanobacteria in order to get the bacteria inside switch grass.

__**Cyanobacteria Entering Plant Leaf: Stage 1 **__



__ **Cyanobacteria Entering Plant Leaf: Stage 2 ** __





__ **Cyanobacteria Entering Plant Leaf: Stage 3 ** __



The cyanobacteria would react to the connection it makes with the plant cell. Because cyanobacteria is photosynthetic, it can make its own glucose from sunlight, water, and CO2. Once the cyanobacteria connects to the plant cell through the use of the hrp gene cluster, it will start to transport glucose through the channel. In order for this to happen, the glucose molecules have to be guided by two chaperone proteins. The glucose first travels through the base, then the needle, and finally through the tip into the host cell.

__**Cyanobacteria Connecting with Plant Cell **__




 * __Type III Secretion System __**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">To make this design possible I would need to combine a few devices into cyanobacteria. The first step of the process would be getting the bacteria into the plant. To get this done, the cyanobacteria would need to secrete a virulence effector protein. The effector protein acts like a trojan horse; it tricks the plant into letting the bacteria into the plant. This would need a hrp-gene encoded type III secretion system. This system includes many proteins which include the virulence effector protein. The hrp-gene system can be found in many plant pathogens but I have decided to pick <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Pseudomonas syringae it includes all of the components I need to complete my design. However, there are a few components that are harmful to the plant which need to be removed in order to keep the plant in a stable condition. One of these components is the avr protein. This protein is used by <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Pseudomonas syringae to colonize and kill the plant. In addition, the protein: lna, needs to be removed from the system because the protein is used to freeze water at fairly hight temperatures, resulting in injury to plants. Lastly, the hrp-gene system contains lipodepsinonapeptide which is a plant toxin that can kill the host plant. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In the diagram above labeled Type III Secretion System, the glucose molecules must be transferred from the cyanobacteria into the plant cell in order for the plant to make cellulose. To make this happen, there must be a chaperon molecule that can guide the glucose to the base of the needle. This molecule must be slightly negative in order to attract the glucose molecule (like a water molecule).

__**Expected Results**__
 * Conjoined with Plant Cell || Transfer Glucose ||
 * 0 || 0 ||
 * 1 || 1 ||

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The bacteria should release glucose into the host cell when it is conjoined with the plant cell. These results will allow the bacteria to transfer glucose which will then increase the production of cellulose. Most companies today are working on ways to make plants more productive by engineering their genome. But my project is an additive, and will always supplement the new discoveries made in the field of ethanol. This design will help increase the yield of ethanol production in switch grass. This will definitely make ethanol more economical. As a result, more consumers will start to use ethanol; which is a biofuel that doesn't leave any emissions.

__**Potential Problems**__

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 10pt;">The bacteria may not be able to enter the plant cell or may not bind with it correctly. In addition, the glucose may not be able to transfer into the plant cell. My bacterium is harmless to the human body because it doesn’t secrete any toxins or substances. I want to ensure that my bacterium doesn’t get into other crops because it will cause other plants to change their natural processes. The bacteria could evolve to act as a parasite to the plant, which will harm the host and eventually kill it. My technology is an additive so it can increase the yield of glucose in almost any plant. My design may mutate and could be harmful to plants, but once the crop is sent for fermentation, it will kill the bacteria and we will have to add new bacteria to the new plants. This will ensure that the bacteria won’t have enough time to mutate so the chance of a harmful bacterium is very low. The rewards would be a more productive yield of ethanol from switch grass. This will make ethanol more economical, which will lead to the transition to a sustainable energy economy

__**Testing**__

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px;">I would test the bacteria on plants in a lab setting and measure the production of ethanol from a plant with my bacteria and one without it. This will prove that my bacterium is effective and can increase the yield of ethanol in plants. It will make the bacteria more reliable for fuel production because it will ensure a greater yield of ethanol. Testing may reveal that the bacteria can make everyday crops bigger in biomass or sweeter than usual. This may be good for farmers because they can then increase their production.

__**Works Cited**__

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://www.pnas.org/content/97/16/8770.][|abstract] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/][|S0092867406010154] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/][|16439654] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ID/ID-328.][|pdf] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://biofuelsandthepoor.com/facts-and-definitions][|/] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/][|S0958166908001420] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70%;">[|http][|://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/doe-lab-synthetic-biology-produce-cheaper-biofuel][|/]