Search for a Psychrotolerant RNA Polymerase Promoter-Sequence for its use in Riboswitch Biosensors

The submission of this proposal was for the continuation of the AFOSR grant FA9550-16-1-0356: "Bioengineering Extremophile Enzymes to Develop a Rapid Diagnostic Test for Warfighters". This project was running in parallel to an existing grant with a unique potential application, directly feeding an initiative by the 711 HPW to create rapid diagnostic tests for Airmen. It possesses promising transition potential in a tech area aligned with the AFRL International Strategy, located in Chile, an emerging country, while leveraging co-funding by AFRL/RH. 2 Extremophiles are a source of new biocompounds and enzymatic activities, poorly described due to the complexity of obtaining and manipulating them. The majority of extremophiles have a low cell yield in cultures when they are cultivated. This can also be extended to viruses, since they need to be in the presence of their cellular hosts. These forms of extreme life are even more interesting when isolated from pristine extreme environments such as Union Glacier, Antarctica, which is located approximately 900 kmfrom the South Pole, where very few researchers, mostly glaciologists have been. Therefore, the chances of obtaining novel strains containing unidentified biological compounds and metabolites that have not been described in the literature or found in available databases, from environmental samples collected from this extreme site are even higher.