iGEM UPCH 2020 wants to protect crops from frosts with the help of synthetic biology

A group of students in Peru recently obtained funding to participate in the main event of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), a synthetic biology competition that brings together young people from more than 40 countries. They are developing an antifreeze protein focused on diminishing the effects of frost on crops, which could have a great impact on the agriculture of the Peruvian Andes.

Isabel Ruiz, co-leader of the UPCH Peru iGEM Team, and Marita Ortiz, Biosecurity and Collaboration Manager, recently joined the iGEM program on Just One Giant Lab (JOGL). In case you don’t know, JOGL is a platform that is fostering open collaboration between iGEM teams working on the Sustainable Development Goals.

To learn more about the project, called Crioprot, we interviewed Isabel and Marita by email:

How did your project get started? How did you become interested in this topic?

We wanted to tackle a local problem. One of our team members is from Cajamarca, a city in the northern highlands of Peru at approximately 2,750 m above sea level. The average temperature in the city is 12ºC and sometimes it decreases to 0ºC early in the morning, causing a high incidence of frost. Because of that, ice crystals form in the intercellular space of plant cells, leading to their dehydration. Frosts directly affect the production of crops such as corn, pea, alfalfa, potato, and cereals such as barley, wheat, and oats. We decided to do something to help tackle this problem.

Why is your research important? What are the possible real-world applications?

We are hoping to produce a solution consisting of antifreeze proteins, which can then be applied to crops in order to protect them from the damaging effects of frost. In our studies, we discovered that natural antifreeze proteins can be found in organisms such as the Lolium perenne plant and the Tenebrio molitor insect.

We inserted the genes responsible for the production of these antifreeze proteins into bacteria such as E. coli, and now we are engineering Pseudoalteromona nigrifaciens, which is of marine origin and grows at low temperatures(4°C).

What is the coolest thing about your project?

To reduce the impact of frost, farmers are currently using awnings and planting crops on a slope to reduce damage to the plants. If successful, our method will be the first solution based on synthetic biology to solve this problem in Peru.

The iGEM UPCH 2020 team also launched a project on the JOGL platform, called iGEM Collab: #SinCienciaNoHayFuturo #NoScienceNoFuture. It is inspired by a movement that started in Spain to demand more investment in science and better working conditions for researchers. If you are an iGEMer working on problems that address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), get in touch with them and join their project on JOGL.

Note: learn more about how to join the iGEM program on JOGL, check out the video below.