C-5-40
iGEM 2013 Team Tokyo Tech Project: Mutant Ninja Coli
Daisuke Kiga 1

Shotaro Ayukawa 2

kiga@dis.titech.ac.jp

ayukawa@acls.titech.ac.jp

Hiroshi Fujimoto 3

Ryota Fujiwara 4

Ema Hatanaka 5

fujimoto.h.ac@m.titech.ac.jp

fujiwara.r.ac@m.titech.ac.jp

hatanaka.e.aa@m.titech.ac.jp

Tatsuhiro Isozaki 6

Tatsuya Kobayashi 3

Masanori Kawabata 7

isozaki.t.ac@m.titech.ac.jp

kobayashi.t.bn@m.titech.ac.jp

mkawabata@suou.waseda.jp

Sara Ogino 3

Ken Saito 10

ogino.s.ab@m.titech.ac.jp

Yochiku Shi8

y_shi@sb.dis.titech.ac.jp

Hengyu Shi 5

saito.k.bb@m.titech.ac.jp

Shinya Suzuki

5suzuki.s.bs@m.titech.ac.jp

Sairi Tomatsu 3

Yuta Wakabayashi 3

tomatsu.s.aa@m.titech.ac.jp

wakabayashi.y.ab@m.titech.ac.jp

Hiroyuki Ohta 9
hohta@bio.titech.ac.jp

Akihiko Konagaya 1
kona@dis.titech.ac.jp

shi.h.ac@m.titech.ac.jp

Shunta Suzuki 3
suzuki.s.cf@m.titech.ac.jp

Naoki Watarai 5
watarai.n.aa@m.titech.ac.jp

Masayuki Yamamura 1
my@dis.titech.ac.jp

1

Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
J2-1707, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan
2
Education Academy of Computational Life Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan3
Department of Bioengineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan
4
School of Bioscience, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta -cho, Midori-ku,
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan
5
Department of Biological Information, Tokyo Institute of Technology,4259 Nagatsuta-cho,Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan
6
School of Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology,4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku,Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan
7
Department of Electrical Engineering and Bioscience, WASEDA University, 3-4-1 Okubo
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan
8
Department of Control and Systems Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259
Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan
9
Center for Biological Resources and Informatics, Tokyo Institute of Technology,4259
Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8501, Japan

Keywords: Synthetic biology, iGEM, genetic circuit
International Genetically Engineered Machine competition ( iGEM) is an international synthetic
biology competition in which undergraduate teams from around the world compete one another. Theparticipating teams design and construct the original genetic circuits by assembling various gene parts
inside living cells during summer. The teams perform the presentation about their work on theJamboree held at MIT. Our Tokyo Tech iGEM team has been participating iGEM since 2006 andgetting bright results such as the acquisition of gold medal and track prizes.
In this year, we proposed to create E. coli that mimics some of the characteristics of ‘ninja’
warrior-spies. A ninja must receive and pass on correct information at all times. A mistake wil l be fatal.
We have designed an artificial genetic circuit that avoids crosstalk between two signals used inbacterial cell-cell communication. Ninjas are also known for their star-shaped ‘shuriken’ throwing
knives. Our E. coli ninja has a similar weapon, an M13 phage which is released to infect other E. coli,injecting plasmid DNA into them. Moreover, ninjas must harmonize with the natural environment, sothat their relationship with nature is very important. Plant hormones help plants to grow efficiently, andwe attempted to construct a circuit that synthesizes two plant hormones depending on the soilenvironment.