Cutting-edge technology: Starting with individual stealth equipment

Chapter 31 Successful Cultivation of Microbial Strains

The Skyworth Technology incident has not affected Lin Chuan at all; he is now focused on DeepBlue Technology's new business.

In the days that followed, Zhao Funing and two other colleagues began preparing for the work, including preparing culture media, sterilizing, streaking, and shaking.

Day four, the first transformation experiment.

Zhao Funing ligated the target gene fragment to the vector, introduced it into the bacterial strain using electroporation, then plated it and placed it in an incubator.

On the morning of the fifth day, Lin Chuan arrived at the laboratory, where Zhao Funing was already standing in front of the incubator.

"How is it?"

Lin Chuan came to her side, and Zhao Funing shook her head: "It hasn't grown."

The plate was completely clean, without a single colony.

"The connection might be too slow. I'll try again."

"No rush, take your time."

A week passed in the blink of an eye, then the second, the third, and the fourth time.

Four attempts in a row, all unsuccessful.

Zhao Funing was getting a little anxious, but Lin Chuan wasn't anxious at all. This was within his expectations because he had deliberately "mixed in" some things.

It would be abnormal if everything went smoothly on the first try; some setbacks are more reasonable.

"Is there a problem with the medium? Let's try a different strategy."

At this moment, Lin Chuan was discussing the reasons for these failures with Zhao Funing and several other project team members.

Zhao Funing said to herself, "I checked every step repeatedly and there were no problems. The ligase was newly bought and there were no problems; the parameters of the electroporator were calibrated and there were no problems; the competent cells were newly made and there were no problems."

Lin Chuan immediately said, "Then let's try a different connection strategy. Let's clone the target gene in segments and then splice them together."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Funing nodded: "Okay, I'll give it a try."

……

Zhao Funing followed Lin Chuan's advice and implemented the adjustment strategy.

The next morning, she went to the lab to observe and was pleasantly surprised to find that this time, colonies finally appeared on the plate.

They are very small, white, and sparse, but they are indeed colonies.

Half an hour later, Lin Chuan arrived at the laboratory.

When Zhao Funing saw him come in, she said happily, "President Lin, your method really worked! The colonies have grown. Take a look."

Lin Chuan leaned closer to look, and through the transparent lid of the petri dish, the tiny colonies looked like the dimmest stars in the night sky.

But they are alive, growing and dividing.

Zhao Funing, standing next to her, said with a hint of excitement, "Moreover, these colonies synthesized a protein I've never seen before."

"Let me see."

Lin Chuan immediately went to the computer, and Zhao Funing followed and pulled up the data to show him.

After looking at it for a while, Lin Chuan felt reassured, as it perfectly matched the description provided by the Hyperdimensional Library.

After a moment, Lin Chuan decisively said, "Expand the cultivation, and then conduct functional verification."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Funing replied, "Okay."

Lin Chuan didn't rest during the following week either. He started preparing a special nutrient solution because Zhao Funing's experiment required it. The plasminoid bacteria needed this environment to reproduce on a large scale, and they would die off in large numbers if they were removed from this environment.

This specially formulated nutrient solution is the most effective way to protect intellectual property rights.

Only Lin Chuan knew the recipe.

Even if others obtain samples of the plasminogen lysate strain, they cannot expand the community or even maintain the activity of the existing strain, unless they can mass-produce this nutrient solution.

……

On the other side, Zhao Funing inoculated the expanded bacterial culture into a liquid culture medium containing plastic powder, which she had specially ground, and some of it was plastic sheets, including common plastics such as PET, HDPE, PS, and LDPE.

Different concentrations of bacterial solutions were added to the culture flasks, while no bacteria were added to the control group.

Then put it in the shaker, 37 degrees, 200 revolutions.

On the first day, nothing changed; the culture medium remained clear, and the plastic powder settled at the bottom of the bottle.

On the third day, the bottle with the high concentration of bacterial solution began to become cloudy, which was due to the bacterial population multiplying.

On the fourth day, the turbidity was even higher, and there seemed to be less plastic powder, but it was still difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

On the seventh day, Zhao Funing took out the culture flask and filtered it with filter paper. The amount of solid matter remaining on the filter paper was significantly less than that in the control group.

She did a simple weighing.

The reduction in plastic powder in the bottle with high-concentration bacterial solution was 77%.

At this moment, Cui Zhaohan stood to the side, his mouth agape for a long time.

"Are we...really eating plastic?"

Zhao Funing ignored him and took the filtrate for chromatographic analysis to detect degradation products.

In fact, Zhao Funing appeared calm on the surface, but she was also very excited inside.

"It's done! It's done, boss!"

Cui Zhaohan shouted excitedly and ran out of the laboratory to find Lin Chuan.

After a short while, Lin Chuan arrived at the laboratory, accompanied by Cui Zhaohan and other project team members.

At this moment, Lin Chuan came to Zhao Funing's side and asked, "How is it?"

"The degradation products are mainly carbon dioxide and water, as well as a small amount of minerals..." Zhao Funing turned her head to look at Lin Chuan, her expression one of great shock. "There are no intermediate products, which means that this metabolic pathway is complete. The bacteria directly use the plastic as a carbon source and degrade it in one step."

Lin Chuan asked, "What about efficiency?"

Zhao Funing calmed herself down and then slowly replied, "Experimental results show that LDEP degraded in just 7 days, PS in about 8 days, HDPE in 11 days, and PET in only... 27 to 30 days to completely degrade."

Upon hearing this, the other members of the project team were stunned.

"What? Did I hear that right? PET plastic can completely degrade in just one month?" A colleague present was dumbfounded. The natural degradation cycle of PET plastic takes 300 to 500 years to completely degrade.

Soft plastics such as LDPE shopping bags take 10 to 20 years to begin decomposing under natural conditions, and complete mineralization takes even longer.

However, the plasminoid bacteria solved the problem in just one week, and the degradation byproducts were carbon dioxide and water.

Another member of the project team exclaimed in surprise, "My God! Are we about to solve the white pollution problem that has plagued humanity for more than half a century?!"

Cui Zhaohan also excitedly said, "It's a Nobel Prize-level achievement, absolutely a Nobel Prize-level achievement."

Everyone in the project team was thrilled. They had only been with DeepBlue Technology for less than two months, yet they had already achieved results that could change the world and go down in history. How could they not be excited?

At this moment, Zhao Funing said, "This is all thanks to President Lin. We were just helping out and hardly contributed anything."

Hearing this, Lin Chuan smiled and said, "You can't say that. Although I gave the main idea, everyone in the project team made their own contributions. When we achieved results and received honors, everyone got a share, and everyone also got a share of the benefits."

Lin Chuan added, "Of course, we have to face things together and overcome difficulties together."

……