Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the heterologous IAA biosynthesis pathway in E. coli

We insert IaaM-IaaH into pET28a to produce IAA in engineered strains.Then ELISA is used to determine the concentration of IAA produced. For this developed part, we collect some new data for next step of modification of this part.

The iaaM and iaaH genes jointly participate in the biosynthesis pathway of the plant hormone Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). First, tryptophan is converted into IAM by tryptophan-2-monooxygenase (IaaM) encoded by the iaaM gene; subsequently, IAM is further converted into IAA by IAM hydrolase (IaaH) encoded by the iaaH gene.

This is the Bronze Part (BBa_K5468006) submitted and validated by our team. We not only successfully reconstructed this pathway in engineered strains but also experimentally verified its effectiveness, and confirmed the actual yield of IAA. These validation results provide reliable data support and an experimental foundation for future iGEM teams, enabling them to further optimize this pathway or apply it in broader synthetic biology practices such as promoting plant growth and improving crop traits.

We create a chlorimuron-ethyl degrading part and a low-temperature inducible suicide part. Chlorimuron-ethyl degrading part encompasses PnbA gene, which is tested as the most efficient enzyme to degrade chlorimuron-ethyl, we newly find the best fit pH value and temperature for this enzyme, providing many available data for IGEM teams in future. And low-temperature inducible suicide system has broad range of application for iGEM teams need keeping certain plasmids away from horizontal gene transfer, which will contaminate natural bacteria genome, especially when the engineered strain is not required in low temperature.

Figure 2. Schematic illustration of the degradation pathway of chlorimuron-ethyl

In the design of our project, we systematically screened and validated different degradation pathways for chlorimuron-ethyl. Ultimately, we selected three candidate enzymes (GST, SulE, and PnbA) for comparative experiments.

The results showed that PnbA exhibited the highest degradation efficiency, effectively catalyzing the de-esterification of chlorimuron-ethyl. Therefore, we chose PnbA as the core degradation enzyme for our project. This outcome not only improved our project design but also provides valuable experimental evidence for future iGEM teams conducting similar herbicide degradation research.

Our contribution lies in:

• Providing a clear enzyme-screening pathway for chlorimuron-ethyl degradation, reducing the exploration cost for future teams.
• Identifying PnbA’s superior performance, offering a validated candidate enzyme for subsequent studies.
• Accumulating experimental methods and result data, enabling future teams to directly build on this foundation for systematic optimization without starting from scratch.

We hope that these results can serve as a reusable resource for the iGEM community in tackling herbicide residue management, and inspire more teams to explore synthetic biology solutions for sustainable agriculture.

Figure 3. Education activities

In our educational activities, our team explored a new approach to science communication: combining AI with comics to transform complex synthetic biology mechanisms into clear, intuitive visual content. This method not only helped farmers and the public quickly understand the issue of chlorimuron-ethyl residues and our proposed solution, but also enhanced their enthusiasm for providing feedback.

The value of this approach lies in offering future iGEM teams a reusable model for education. Whether in projects related to agriculture, environmental management, or healthcare, other teams can adopt this “AI + comics” strategy to conduct project education and outreach. This not only reduces the cost of science communication but also enables more effective feedback collection across diverse audiences, thereby driving further project improvement and refinement.

Through this contribution, we aim to leave the iGEM community with a sustainable educational tool and a practical case study, helping more teams achieve greater impact in science communication and public engagement.