Team:Ecuador/project
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Description
Engineering
Model
Hardware
Experiments
Implementation
Safety
What is AgroBactory 593?
Plant diseases are one of the main hazards to agriculture. One out of three Cavendish bananas being eaten every day is produced in Ecuador. Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) is the major threat to banana cultivars worldwide.
AgroBactory 593, is a modular bacterial platform that produces low-cost biopesticides to fight against plant diseases. By producing and delivering double-stranded RNA molecules as biopesticides, AgroBactory 593 uses RNAi technology to silence expression of specific targets in the pathogen genome.
To demonstrate the platform’s effectiveness, we made a biopesticide against Foc R1 in vitro. Its modular design allows us to easily change the pathogens of interest, adjust the biopesticide level, and select the bacterial chassis. This way, we can optimize and customize our biopesticide providing an accessible solution for farmers and their crops against pests.
AgroBactory 593 is a powerful tool to guarantee disease-free and high-quality food for the world.
Modules
Production of dsRNA
Delivery and Release
RNA silencing
