Tonnes of sugar are lost every year because of an enzyme. This iGEM team is using synthetic biology to change that
A group of 12 students in India from various disciplines are working together to find a solution to a common problem faced by farmers all over the country. The iGEM BITS Goa team is the first-ever team to represent the Birla Institute of Technology & Science community at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), a synthetic biology competition that brings together young people from more than 40 countries.
The team recently joined the iGEM program on Just One Giant Lab (JOGL), a platform that is fostering open collaboration between iGEM teams working on the Sustainable Development Goals.
To learn more about the project, called SugarGain, we interviewed the team leaders Arya Agarwal and Shruti Sridhar by email.
Can you tell us about your project?
Arya and Shruti: The BITS Goa iGEM team aims to address a major challenge in the agriculture industry: the loss of sucrose in sugarcane during transportation due to the action of an enzyme (called invertase). This loss in sucrose content happens during the transportation of sugarcane from the farm to the mill, as the enzyme invertase breaks down the sucrose and converts it to glucose and fructose. Because the activity of this enzyme increases as time progresses, the transportation of sugarcane over long distances can be unviable and uneconomical. The retrieval rate of sugar from sugarcane is just 10.25% and this is remarkably low for a country heavily dependent on agriculture, such as India.
For the iGEM competition this year, we are hoping to genetically engineer bacteria to secrete an enzyme inhibitor that will reduce the degradation of sucrose. The farmers would introduce our E. coli into the stem of the sugarcane by means of a polymer-based inoculant which would be injected into the sugarcane matrix. Once inside, the genetic circuit inside the bacterial chassis is designed to exhibit anti-invertase activity regulated by the amount of fructose and glucose inside the sugarcane in a continuous and controlled manner. Our aim is to improve the sugar retrieval rate in sugarcane post-harvest.
How did your project get started? Why is your research important?
Arya and Shruti: The problem we decided to tackle has been around for decades, and, after hearing about it several times, we decided to dig deeper into the matter. Agriculture is the primary source of income for about 58% of India’s population. Most of our team members come from the Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, or Uttar Pradesh, which are some of the largest producers of sugarcane.
Sugarcane is not only the primary input in the production of sugar, but it is also an important input in many other industries such as energy (ethanol production and power generation). The sugar industry is also one of the largest employers of the rural Indian population, impacting the lives of almost 50 million farmers.
What is the coolest thing about your project?
Arya and Shruti: As a part of our iGEM project, we started an initiative called The Language Project to address the difficulties in science communication and to make science more accessible. This year, BITS Goa and the University of Rochester are collaborating with IIT Madras to expand the number of initiatives under this umbrella. It is a multifaceted approach that includes art, dance, and music to foster science communication. We also hope to increase the accessibility of resources through our ASL (American Sign Language) initiatives and by making iGEM wikis more accessible.
What kinds of challenges are you facing?
Arya: The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed created tough circumstances for people around the world. Our team comprises students from all across India, and our university has remained shut since mid-March 2020. Therefore, we had to switch entirely from a wet-lab oriented approach to formulating dry-lab based solutions. Apart from that, it has somewhat hindered the human practices part of our project. We did reach out to several stakeholders virtually, but it lacked the personal touch that one would experience while pitching the project in person, and we couldn’t visit the mills, which would have given us a first-hand observation of the problem.
How can scientists harness synthetic biology to meet the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals?
Arya: I have been attending many iGEM webinars, and one of the most important phrases that I came across was this one (and till this day it has stuck with me):
“It’s not about building electric cars in the future, but more about how to build electric cars in the future without hurting the environment.” — Marc Buckley, JOGL Launch Webinar, 8th July 2020.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are 17 in number, but each of these goals encompasses innumerable problems, most of which we are unaware of. Synthetic biology acts like a master key to solve a majority of them. When combined with tools from other disciplines, it shows a perfect enzyme-substrate relationship, dictating the various ways to target the problem.
What actions can other iGEM teams take this year in order to achieve some of the SDGs?
Arya: The most important step to achieve any SDG is to identify the setbacks which prevent it from being accomplished. The idea of fulfilling any SDG revolves around the fact that it’s more of a community effort. And in my opinion, this can be done when there is substantial awareness regarding the same. So, frequent informative webinars/campaigns can be organized by teams in their respective native language(s) which target their local communities, thus educating and engaging them in a fun, interactive way.
We did something similar back in July. We organized a first-of-its-kind BioSummit in collaboration with one of our fellow Indian teams, iGEM Manipal Biomachines. This idea behind the summit was to bring together students across India to come and lead a healthy discussion revolving around the Sustainable Development Goals. The event was hosted with the help of our university’s MUN Society along with the NGOs The Dais and Emerge, that are working to achieve the SDGs.
Note: learn more about how to join the iGEM program on JOGL, check out the video below.
