Difference between revisions of "Team:BIT-China/Results"

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                                         We used the red fluorescent protein to replace the killer gene and constructed three circuits [part numbers] with different in-promoters (controlled by inhibitors). Two of them [part number] comes from DNA Distribution kit.
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                                         We used the red fluorescent protein to replace the killer gene and constructed three circuits <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120301" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120301]</a> with different in-promoters (controlled by inhibitors). Two of them <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_I13521" style="color:blue;">[BBa_I13521]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_I6031" style="color:blue;">[BBa_I6031]</a> comes from DNA Distribution kit.
 
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                                         But when we added the arabinose, the RFP intensity increased, and it contradicted with expected results. We thought the terminator cannot completely isolate the two devices.
 
                                         But when we added the arabinose, the RFP intensity increased, and it contradicted with expected results. We thought the terminator cannot completely isolate the two devices.
                                         <b>So we change the promoter direction and add another B0015 to optimize the circuits.</b> [part numbers]
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                                         <b>So we change the promoter direction and add another B0015 to optimize the circuits.</b> <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120310" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120310]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120311" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120311]</a>
 
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                                         Also in order to reflect the inhibitor concentration, we constructed the following circuit. [part number]
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                                         Also in order to reflect the inhibitor concentration, we constructed the following circuit. <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120302" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120302]</a>
 
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                                         We constructed 16 (4*2*2) devices [part numbers] with the alteration of constitutive promoters (4 kinds), RBS (2 kinds) and inhibitors (2 kinds).
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                                         We constructed 16 (4*2*2) devices <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120312" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120312]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120313" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120313]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120314" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120314]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120315" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120315]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120317" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120317]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120318" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120318]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120319" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120319]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120321" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120321]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120323" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120323]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120325" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120325]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120326" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120326]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K2120327" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K2120327]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1480003" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K1480003]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K145201" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K145201]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K145113" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K145113]</a><a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1480004" style="color:blue;">[BBa_K1480004]</a> with the alteration of constitutive promoters (4 kinds), RBS (2 kinds) and inhibitors (2 kinds).
 
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Revision as of 19:44, 19 October 2016

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Threshold device
In the threshold device, we need to prove that the in-promoter will have different responses corresponding to different plasmid numbers. In our project, we use the inhibitor protein as the signal. We combined the wet experiment results and the mathematical model to prove our system can work in order. We divided it into two main goals:
(1) To prove that inhibitor’s concentration can regulate the expression of the killer gene by affecting its in-promoter.
(2) To prove that plasmid numbers will influence the inhibitor concentration
Results:
1. Simulated the production of inhibitors with different concentrations by adding different concentrations of arabinose
2. Found out the concentrations of inhibitor under different concentrations of arabinose and used the results to derive the threshold of plasmids number in the constitutive circuit.
3. Employed plasmids with different copy numbers and simulated the concentrations of plasmids losing on different levels
4. Employed different RBS and promoters with different strengths to change the inhibitor concentration

Killer device
Since the lethal efficiency of killer genes will decide the capacity of general circuit, so we have to:
1. Prove that the toxin protein we selected can successfully express and the lethal effect is obvious
2. Adjust the translation efficiency of toxin proteins through replace ribosome binding site (RBS), thus to adjust the threshold
3. Construct gene circuits connecting killer device and inhibitor device
4. Find another possible way to produce the lethal effect
Results:
1. Successfully constructed the testing circuits of toxin proteins [Part: BBa_K2120002 and Part: BBa_K2120003]
2. After transformation, we measured the OD600 to draw the growth curve and observed the function of toxin protein.
3. In addition to B0032, we selected a stronger RBS B0034 and a weaker one B0031. Through measuring OD600, we demonstrated that we can adjust the lethal efficiency through replacing RBS.
4. Successfully constructed the testing circuit of toxin proteins according to two kinds of inhibitors. [For example, Part: BBa_K2120400]
5. Tested the lethal effect of producing DSB through coupling sgRNA and Cas9

Recombination
Aim
Considering the factor of the potential deficiency of executor killer due to the completely lost of plasmids and the number of "in-promoters" will affect our system, we decide to integrate the killer device into the genome. This group mainly provided a tool for genome integration. The insertion fragment is our testing device, including the expression cassette of rfp and killer gene. With this recombination system, we can get the upgraded type of our P-SLACKiller.
Results
1. Coupled CRISPR/Cas9 system with λ-Red recombineering to integrate the donor fragments, but we haven’t finished the second plasmid construction
2. Tried the traditional lambda Red recombination and successfully inserted four testing devices into the genome, locus of LacI.
Coupling CRISPR/Cas9 system with λ-Red recombineering
1. Plasmid construction
We designed a two-plasmid system applied for it. There was a low-copy plasmid pSTV29 for Cas9 and λ-Red expression from the arabinose-inducible promoter PBAD respectively and a high-copy plasmid pUC19 for sgRNA expression from a constitutive promoter J23119.
fig13
Fig.1 Double plasmids to meet different requirements for each element. Equip the high copy number plasmid pUC19 with sgRNA targeting site on genome and donor fragment with homologous arms. The low copy number plasmid are equipped with expression cassette of Cas9 protein and λ-Red recombinase

We mainly used Gibson assembly to construct these two plasmids. The pUC19 plasmid containing sgRNA and donor fragment was successfully constructed. Separately, we successfully constructed the lambda Red protein and Cas9 protein on pSTV29.
fig14
However, we didn’t finish the second plasmid construction due to the limit of time. Instead, we decided to employ the traditional lambda Red recombination system to carry out the integration process since we received the plasmid pKD46 from Dr. Bo Lv.
Lambda red recombination
For facile blue and white colony screening, the target site we chose is the 5 ’end of LacZ gene encoding the active site of β-galactosidase. At first, we used strain TOP10 as our host. To test the experiment conditions which is optimal for transformation, we did the pre-experiment and used the resistance Kana gene as the donor fragment to target the gene locus of LacZ. We have tried several times, but failed.
Considering that the complementary sequence between donor fragment and target site is one of the most important factors deciding the successful rate of recombination, we re-designed our experiment. The whole sequence of TOP10 is not open access and the specific sequence for LacZ has been modified and we couldn’t confirm the modified one. So we decided to replace the host to DH5α.
1. Transformed the plasmid pKD46 into host and made it competent cell after induced by L-arabinose
We transformed the pKD46 into competent cell DH5α, and added arabinose to induce the expression of recombinase. When the OD600 is about 0.6 which means the bacteria is at the log phase, we made it competent for electroporation transformation.
2. Preparation of donor fragment
We designed homologous arms with the length of 50bp and 500 bp. The short one was designed on the primer, while the long arm was constructed through over-lap extension PCR (OE-PCR).
After several times of try-error, we confirmed the comparatively optimal condition for lambda Red recombination. The target site is LacI and the host is DH5α. The homologous arm of 50 bp is enough for recombination.
Using the pKD3 as template, we added the cat expression cassette behind the testing parts, the whole donor fragment was sandwiched by 50bp left and right homologous arm.
fig15
fig16
fig17
fig18
Fig.2Four testing circuits used as our donor fragment
fig19
Fig.3 DNA Agarose Gel electrophoresis of donor fragments
3. Transformed the donor fragment through electroporation into the competent cell we prepared before
After transformation, we observed clones on the chloramphenicol plates. We selected the positives clones through colony PCR.
fig20
Fig.4 Recombination model and the sites of verifying primers
According to our design, the donor fragment is about 2000 bp, while the substituted fragment on genome is 1083bp, which means the successful integration will result in over 1000 bp increasing of length on the locus of LacI. We used the verifying primers to test whether we have successfully integrated these donor fragments.
fig21
Fig.5 The positive clones are 1~7, separately indicating the testing circuits above, and 8 is the negative control whose template is the original genome without any integration.

Compared with the negative control with no integration occurred, the colony PCR showed that we have successfully integrated the four circuits into the LacI locus of genome.

Site-directed promoter mutation
We have two combinations of inhibitor and "in-promoter": TetR-PTet, CI-PR. The strength of "in-promoter" will decide the expression level of killer gene. Directly applied these two combinations, we got the initial threshold. In order to adjust the threshold, we planned to mutate the "in-promoter" and got mutants with various strengths. We chose PTet as our target promoter. Through literature research, we chose the -35 region as our mutation region. We mainly used RFP to indicate the promoter strength in our wet experiment.
Results
1. Tried to use one-step mutation, but because of the secondary structure of promoters, we didn’t get positive results
2. Built a library of mutated PTet promoters and characterized the promoter activity through measuring the red fluorescence intensity
3. Selected 4 mutants and got the successful sequencing results