Microcystis aeruginosa is one of the major types of cyanobacteria which constitute algal bloom. It forms aggregations in aquatic environment, thereby shelters other aquatic organism from sunlight and oxygen; it produces toxic metabolites which may pose threat to humans and livestocks via food chain links as well as direct water supply. That’s why we seek for efficient ways to control cyanobacteria as our iGEM project.

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Inspired by the natural aggregation behavior of algal blooms, we came up with an idea to bind E.coli to algae through the protein that mediates algal aggregation (Binding Part). We also armed E.coli with hen egg lysozyme (Killing Part) and MlrA enzyme (Degradation part) so our engineered E.coli would work like a heat-seeking missile that specifically target and destroy algal aggregations, while the same time degrade the cyclic Microcystin, a toxin produced by M. aeruginosa, into its non-toxic linear form. To eliminate any possibilities of GMO pollution, an inducible suicide part constituted of Plac (inducible promoter), Holin and Endolysin is added to allow the remove of engineered bacteria when Algae has been defeated and toxins been degraded.