Our Sponsors
Geneious, Thomas Scientific, Integrated DNA, New England Bio, Aether Bio, and Dean of Students and Dean of Engineering at UCSC
Contact Us
1156 High St, CA 95060, US
Design: We derived our backbone from the pICH41308 plasmid from the MoClo Toolkit [1][2]. pICH41308 is a Level 0 cloning vector with a length of 2247 base pairs that contains LacZ alpha and an antibiotic resistance to spectinomycin. At first, the experiment was conducted using un-optimized inserts; we later transitioned to using codon-optimized inserts. All of these inserts are considered Level -1 parts and contain BbsI restriction enzyme sites.
Build In order to integrate these inserts into the MoClo backbone, we utilized Golden Gate Assembly. Golden Gate Assembly (GGA) is the method by which one or more inserts can be efficiently integrated into a vector backbone by using a Type IIS restriction enzyme and a T4 DNA ligase in a one-pot reaction. The Type IIS restriction enzyme in particular has the ability to cleave DNA outside of its recognition sites, which ultimately results in the enzyme's removal of the recognition sequence. This method is advantageous because of the fact that scar sequences are not introduced, multiple fragments can be integrated into the backbone, and the digestion and ligation processes can be performed simultaneously.
Test: The efficacy of our GGA reaction was tested through multiple steps: electroporation and touchdown PCR. We initially used electroporation in order to transform our assembled plasmid into electrocompetent E.coli Top10 cells. Following electroporation, we used X-Gal plates to do blue-white screening for transformed colonies. The idea was that a colony would turn blue if it still contained the LacZ fragment in its genome; if a colony was blue, that would indicate that it was not transformed with the plasmid due to the fact that the insert should, hypothetically, knock out the LacZ fragment. If a colony turned white, that would indicate that the colony did not contain the LacZ fragment and was hence transformed with the plasmid.
Learn: Following the transformation of Top10 E.coli cells, we performed touchdown PCR to see if our GGA reaction worked by confirming the size of our parts, run with a subsequent gel electrophoresis. After testing our GGA, we came to the consensus that our reaction was unsuccessful, but we decided to troubleshoot the testing steps first. The first conclusion we came to was that electroporation was unsuccessful due to the fact that the restriction enzymes from the GGA led to high salt concentrations that would cause the E.coli cells to be unable to uptake the plasmid; this led us to switch to chemi-competent transformation.
Design: As mentioned before, the high salt concentration led us to switch to chemi-competent transformation. Another area of concern was our PCR protocol: previously, we had been following the Q5 protocol[9] using colonies from the transformed plate, whereas we should have been following the OneTaq protocol[10] where we were doing colony PCR. Another limitation we had realized was regarding the blue-white screening process, which could have been potentially unreliable due to the fact that we were almost exclusively getting white (transformed) colonies. Due to this, we decided to pick ten individual colonies and screen all of them during our PCR process; this was running on the assumption that only some of the colonies were truly transformed with our level 0 part.
Build and Test: After troubleshooting all of the testing steps following our GGA reaction, we ran a gel electrophoresis. A successful GGA reaction was indicated by an absence of a band around 300 base pairs; since that is the size of the region between the flanking primers in lieu of the LacZ fragment. The gel that we ran showed a band around 300 base pairs, which suggested an unsuccessful GGA reaction due to the fact that the LacZ fragment was removed from the backbone, but the insert was not integrated into the vector.
Build and Test: After troubleshooting all of the testing steps following our GGA reaction, we ran a gel electrophoresis. A successful GGA reaction was indicated by an absence of a band around 300 base pairs; since that is the size of the region between the flanking primers in lieu of the LacZ fragment. The gel that we ran showed a band around 300 base pairs, which suggested an unsuccessful GGA reaction due to the fact that the LacZ fragment was removed from the backbone, but the insert was not integrated into the vector.
Learn: From this, we concluded that our reagents could potentially be an impedance to us having a successful GGA reaction, and that our GGA reaction itself needed to undergo troubleshooting.
Design: In order to troubleshoot our GGA reaction and the reagents we were using, we set up a three-part control experiment with the following design:
Control 1: pICH41308 + GFP + T4 Ligase Buffer + DI H2O
Control 2: pICH41308 + GFP + T4 Ligase Buffer + Bbs1 Restriction Enzyme + DI H2O (no T4 Ligase)
Control 3: pICH41308 + GFP + T4 Ligase Buffer + Bbs1 Restriction Enzyme + T4 Ligase Buffer + DI H2O
Using this control experiment, (1) and (3) should hypothetically work when plated; (1) was the plasmid and (3) was the full integrated plasmid.
(2) should not have worked because it only contained digested plasmid that had not been ligated using the T4 Ligase.
Build: After running the troubleshooting experiment, it was concluded that the Bbs1 restriction enzyme stock we were using was defective. After running a GGA reaction, all three parts of the experiment were plated on X-Gal + Spectinomycin after undergoing a chemi-competent transformation into DH5-alpha E.coli cells, after discovering that Top10 cells inherently contained a resistance to spectinomycin.
Test: The plate for (1) was successful, as it only contained the untransformed backbone; the plates for (2) and (3) were unsuccessful as the digestion step was not able to occur due to the ineffectiveness of the Bbs1 restriction enzyme.
Learn: From here, we were able to pinpoint the troubleshooting areas for Golden Gate, and could now have the potential to successfully create a level 0 part, with the goal of eventually being able to create a level T construct.
Design: After much troubleshooting with the GGA itself and every step of the testing process, we were able to develop a steady pipeline for being able to develop level 0 parts with the goal of eventually creating a level T construct.
Build: The final design are as listed below:
GGA: integrate optimized level -1 inserts with Bbs1 restriction sites into pICH41308 MoClo backbone
Transformation: transform chemi-competent DH5-alpha cells with GGA product; plate and incubate overnight using blue-white screening.
PCR: pick ten different transformed white colonies from plates and dilute in 10 μL DI H2O; follow the NEB protocol using OneTaq 2X MasterMix,
adjust annealing temperature and extension time in accordance with the insert present in the amplicon.
Gel: run the PCR samples on a 1% agarose gel and observe the size of the bands.
Test: With this new pipeline in mind, we tested using codon-optimized inserts of Cpf1, GFP, CbAgo, and more (for all of the parts, look at the Contribution page!). Throughout our testing process, we were able to prove that we had successful GGA reactions for codon-optimized Cpf1, GFP, and CbAgo. In addition to having these level 0 reactions, we were also able to ligate a level 1 antibiotic-resistance construct with success using the appropriate parts from the CyanoGate Toolkit.[8]
Learn: In order to confirm the identity of the level 0 parts that were isolated, we sent many of our samples to UC Berkeley for sequencing.
The following is the most up-to-date set of protocols we implemented throughout the project. Each protocol section contains 3 sections: Materials, Protocol, and Troubleshooting Tips. It's important to highlight that many of these protocols were specifically designed for troubleshooting purposes. Some were developed in response to challenges encountered during the project, while others were fine-tuned to ensure smooth operations. These protocols reflect the evolving nature of our approach and were essential in addressing and mitigating any unforeseen issues along the way.
Note: Make sure to time all of your steps where the timing matters!
Note: Do not pipet to resuspend !
For each tube, prepare the following reaction:
Reagent | Volume (μL) |
---|---|
BbsI-HF or Bsa1-HFv2 | 1.5 |
T4 DNA Ligase | 0.5 |
10x T4 DNA Ligase Buffer | 2.5 |
Destination plasmid | 1 |
Insert | 0.75 per insert |
Milli Q H2O | Up to 19.5 |
Total: | 25 μL |
Place sample in the thermocycler with the following steps:
Step | Temperature (℃) | Time (min) |
---|---|---|
1 | 37 | 5 |
2 (30x cycles) | 16 | 5 |
3 | 60 | 5 |
Hold | 4 | ∞ |
Set up the following PCR reaction:
Reagents | Volume (μL) |
---|---|
Forward Primer (2.5 μM) | 2 |
Reverse Primer (2.5 μM) | 2 |
Transformed Colony Sample | 1 |
OneTaq 2x Master Mix | 12.5 |
MiliQ Water | 7.5 |
Total: | 25 μL |
Program the thermocycler with the following conditions:
Step | Temperature (℃) | Time (seconds) |
---|---|---|
Denaturing | 94 | 30 |
Annealing | 51 | 45 |
Extension | 68 | 1 min per kb |
Repeat the steps below for 20 cycles, while setting up a gradient for the annealing step.
Step | Temperature (℃) | Time (seconds) |
---|---|---|
Denaturing | 94 | 30 |
Annealing | 48-53 | 45 |
Extension | 68 | 1 min per kb |
Program the following steps for safety.
Step | Temperature (℃) | Time (minutes) |
---|---|---|
Final Extension | 68 | 5 |
Hold | 4 | ∞ |
Set up the following reactions (for 25 μL reaction):
Reagents | Volume (μL) |
---|---|
Q5 High-Fidelity 2X Master Mix | 12.5 |
Forward Primer (10 μM) | 1.25 |
Reverse Primer (10 μM) | 1.25 |
Template DNA | Variable |
MilliQ Water | Up to 25 μL |
Total: | 25 μL |
Program the thermocycler using the following conditions:
Step | Temperature (°C) | Time (seconds) |
---|---|---|
Initial Denaturation | 98 | 30 |
25 cycles | 98 | 5-10 |
50-72 | 10-30 | |
72 | 30 seconds per 1kb | |
Final Extension | 72 | 2 minutes |
Hold | 4 | ∞ |
Note: All centrifugation steps performed at 16000g.
BG-11 media (recipe described below)
Stocks | Per 500mL / 100mL / Liter |
---|---|
NaNO3 | 75.0g (per 500mL) |
K2HPO4 | 4.0g (per 100mL) |
MgSO4·7H2O | 7.5g (per 100mL) |
CaCl2·2H2O | 3.6g (per 100mL) |
Citric Acid* | 0.60g (per 100mL) |
Ammonium ferric citrate green* | 0.60g (per 100mL) |
Na2EDTA | 0.10g (per 100mL) |
Na2CO3 | 2.0g (per 100mL) |
Trace elements: | |
H3BO3 | 2.86g (per Liter) |
MnCl2·4H2O | 1.81g (per Liter) |
ZnSO4·7H2O | 0.22g (per Liter) |
Na2MoO4·2H2O | 0.39g (per Liter) |
CuSO4·5H2O | 0.08g (per Liter) |
Co(NO3)2·6H2O | 0.05g (per Liter) |
Medium | Per Liter |
---|---|
Stock solution 1 | 10.0mL |
Stock solutions 2-9 | 1.0mL each |
[1] A modular cloning system for standardized assembly of multigene constructs. Weber E, Engler C, Gruetzner R, Werner S, Marillonnet S. PLOS ONE . 2011 Feb 18;6(2):e16765. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016765. PubMed PMID 21364738.
[2] Fast track assembly of multigene constructs using Golden Gate cloning and the MoClo system. Werner S, Engler C, Weber E, Gruetzner R, Marillonnet S. Bioeng Bugs. 2012 Jan 1;3(1):38-43. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016765. PubMed PMID 22126803.
[3] “Zyppy Plasmid Miniprep Kit,” ZYMO RESEARCH, 2023. https://www.zymoresearch.com/products/zyppy-plasmid-miniprep-kit?srsltid=AfmBOopa0khOS21ey9b1XdMteeDLi8_AkEL4B1AiXEzgxBQaVL6doKVe (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[4] “Quick-DNA HMW MagBead Kit,” ZYMO RESEARCH, 2023. https://www.zymoresearch.com/products/quick-dna-hmw-magbead-kit?srsltid=AfmBOoo7CSVk-ji8O-e59cGYkvv6pm8aJsABiL7Xd419gHGh9WfpLeyo (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[5] “| UCSC - iGEM 2023,” Igem.wiki, 2023. https://2023.igem.wiki/ucsc/ (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[6] New England Biolabs, Neb.com, 2024. https://www.neb.com/en-us/protocols/2015/03/04/golden-gate-assembly-protocol-for-using-neb-golden-gate-assembly-mix-e1600 (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[7] New England Biolabs, Neb.com, 2024. https://www.neb.com/en-us/products/t1020-monarch-dna-gel-extraction-kit (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[8]CyanoGate: A Modular Cloning Suite for Engineering Cyanobacteria Based on the Plant MoClo Syntax. Vasudevan R, Gale GAR, Schiavon AA, Puzorjov A, Malin J, Gillespie MD, Vavitsas K, Zulkower V, Wang B, Howe CJ, Lea-Smith DJ, McCormick AJ. Plant Physiology.2019 May;180(1):39-55. doi: 10.1104/pp.18.01401. PubMed PMID: 30819783.
[9] New England Biolabs, Neb.com, 2024. https://www.neb.com/en-us/protocols/2012/12/07/protocol-for-q5-high-fidelity-2x-master-mix-m0492 (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
[10] New England Biolabs, Neb.com, 2024. https://www.neb.com/en-us/protocols/2012/09/06/protocol-for-onetaq-2x-master-mix-with-standard-buffer-m0482 (accessed Oct. 01, 2024).
1156 High St, CA 95060, US