iGEM 2025 — Team bbs-kuwait

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{% block title %}Notebook{% endblock %}
{% block lead %}This serves as a chronological record of your team's progress throughout the season. It documents your daily activities, experiments, discussions, and decisions.{% endblock %}
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## What Should this Page Contain?

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* Record all activities in chronological order, with each entry clearly dated.
* Provide sufficient detail for each activity, including:

+ Purpose of the activity.
+ Methods and procedures used.
+ Results obtained.
+ Observations and notes.

* Document all experiments, protocols, data analysis, meetings, brainstorming sessions, and other project-related activities.
* Include photos, videos, and diagrams to illustrate your progress.
* Indicate which team members participated in each activity.

## Inspirations

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* [2024 EPFL](https://2024.igem.wiki/epfl/notebook)
* [2024 JU-Krakow](https://2024.igem.wiki/ju-krakow/notebook)

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{% block title %}Engineering Success{% endblock %}
{% block lead %}Demonstrate engineering success in a technical aspect of your project by going through at least one iteration of the engineering design cycle.{% endblock %}
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#### Silver Medal Criterion #1

Demonstrate engineering success in a technical aspect of your project by going through at least one iteration of the engineering design cycle.

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Visit the [Medals page](https://competition.igem.org/judging/medals) for more information.

## Tips for Success

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Engineering success can be achieved by documenting your effort to follow the engineering design cycle: Design → Build → Test → Learn

We invite you to think about ways to tackle and solve one or more of your project's problems and use synthetic biology tools and/or experimental techniques to generate expected results.

When you have completed the cycle once, think about and document what changes in design you would make for the next iteration(s) of the cycle.

For example, you can design and build a new Part, measure its performance, document whether it worked or not, and propose how the results would inform the next design or steps (documentation must be on the Part's Pages on the Registry).

Visit the [Engineering pages](https://technology.igem.org/engineering) for additional guidance on engineering success.

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# Experiments

How we tested our concept in the lab

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To test our concept, we are engineering *E. coli* ATCC 25922 with two plasmids,
**pVanCC** and **pAcu**, to overproduce extracellular polysaccharides (EPS).
We will assess the modified *E. coli* to produce more EPS and test the effectiveness on soil
by analyzing water retention compared to soil with simply *E. coli*.

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![Gloves always on!](https://static.igem.wiki/teams/6034/wiki/labbts/127b6a4e-0f6a-4052-8cbe-6fe7eef88ab0.avif)

preparing plates…

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{% block title %}Results{% endblock %}
{% block lead %}Our theoretical findings on how EPS-producing *E. coli* can improve soil water retention in Kuwait’s arid climate.{% endblock %}
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## Results

In theory, the results should demonstrate that soil samples containing the induced EPS-producing *E. coli* retain significantly more moisture over time compared to both the uninduced bacterial samples and the control without bacteria. The EPS layer secreted by the engineered bacteria would bind water molecules and create a gel-like matrix within the soil, reducing the rate of evaporation. This effect should be most pronounced in the induced samples, where EPS production is maximized through activation of the plasmid systems.

In contrast, the uninduced and control samples would show faster decreases in soil weight due to rapid water loss under high-temperature conditions. Ideally, the visual texture of the soil with EPS-producing bacteria would also appear more cohesive and less dry, indicating improved soil structure and aggregation.

These findings would theoretically validate the concept that engineered microorganisms can act as biological water retainers, offering a sustainable method to enhance soil moisture in arid environments like Kuwait.

## Next Steps

Future work will include quantifying EPS production through biochemical assays, performing real soil moisture retention experiments, and testing bacterial viability under prolonged heat exposure. These results would provide measurable data to validate the biological model and determine practical applications for Kuwait’s agriculture sector.

Our long-term goal is to create a reproducible and field-applicable model where EPS-producing bacteria can be integrated into sustainable farming practices, contributing to climate resilience and environmental conservation.

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