Citation
Larsson, Elin Maria (2025) Domestication of Environmental Bacteria for Biosensing Applications. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/m077-7633. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:06012025-210705210
Abstract
The field of synthetic biology has made impressive progress in the past 25 years, but is still lacking when it comes to our capability to predictably engineer organisms outside of a small group of lab model organisms. In this thesis, I present the efforts to domesticate two soil bacteria important in agriculture for biosensing. The first, Pseudomonas synxantha, a wheat-colonizing bacterium that helps fight off fungal disease, was engineered into a bioreporter for phosphorus limitation. We also made cell-free extract from this organism, to enable rapid characterization of genetic elements. For the second, Xenorhabdus griffiniae, we asked the question of whether this bacterium can sense the presence of its entomopathogenic nematode host Steinernema hermaphroditum. We learned that X. griffiniae is able to sense its host and we were able to build an early variant of a nematode reporter by first characterizing genetic elements in X. griffiniae.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Dissertation (Ph.D.)) | |||||||||
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| Subject Keywords: | synthetic biology, soil bacteria, host-microbe interactions | |||||||||
| Degree Grantor: | California Institute of Technology | |||||||||
| Division: | Biology and Biological Engineering | |||||||||
| Major Option: | Bioengineering | |||||||||
| Thesis Availability: | Public (worldwide access) | |||||||||
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| Defense Date: | 14 April 2025 | |||||||||
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| Record Number: | CaltechTHESIS:06012025-210705210 | |||||||||
| Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:06012025-210705210 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.7907/m077-7633 | |||||||||
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| Default Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | |||||||||
| ID Code: | 17345 | |||||||||
| Collection: | CaltechTHESIS | |||||||||
| Deposited By: | Elin Larsson | |||||||||
| Deposited On: | 02 Jun 2025 22:58 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 13 Jun 2025 22:42 |
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