Team:USP UNIFESP-Brazil/Experiments
Assembly by cut&paste
As we had trouble with our USER-specific primers request and could not start with the USER method, we started an alternative way to polymerize the MaSp1 monomers. Based on the Nature protocol of Teulé et al(ref) we designed a cut and paste technique, to duplicate the MaSp1 sequence at each round. Telué and collaborators use a cloning vector with a restriction site in its resistance gene and two complementary but non regenerable restriction sites, one at each side of the insert, which is the sequence that is going to be duplicated. The vector is cut in two parallel separated digestions, at one side of the insert and at the resistance gene, and on the other side of the insert and also at the resistance gene. In both digestions, two fragments will be generated: one that contains the insert and a part of the resistance gene, and one that does not contain the insert. Ligating the insert-containing fragments of the two different digestions together results in the duplication of the insert in a vector with a complete resistance gene.
Doing iGEM in labs without an established molecular biology line was challenging, and although some features may seem small, they were surely fruits of hard work!
