Biomolecular Breadboards:Preliminary Data: Difference between revisions
(→GamS) |
|||
Line 64: | Line 64: | ||
===Thiosulfate Bonds=== | ===Thiosulfate Bonds=== | ||
We have also tried using thiosulfate bonds to protect linear DNA. These have little effect. | |||
{| border=1 width=100% | {| border=1 width=100% |
Revision as of 10:38, 11 May 2013
Home | Protocols | DNA parts | Preliminary Data | Models | More Info |
This page contains some data that we have taken with the TX-TL breadboard.
Plasmid Expression of GFP
Using pBEST-OR2-OR1-Pr-UTR1-deGFP-T500, a plasmid enhanced for GFP expression, the biomolecular breadboard is able to express mass at equal concentrations to comparable bacteriophage in-vitro systems (J. Shin and V. Noireaux, 2010).
Expression of plasmids can be optimized by concentration. Figure 1 (below) shows a typical time response for expression of the control plasmid, along with the data we collected from our plate reader. If you are trying to get TX-TL working, this is probably the first test that you should do.
Figure 1. eGFP expression as a function of plasmid DNA template. Plasmid DNA pBEST-OR2-OR1-Pr-UTR1-eGFP-T500 is varied by concentration. |
Protecting Linear DNA from Exonuclease-Mediated Degradation
Current standards for circuit design utilize plasmids for DNA template, which require time-consuming subcloning steps. However, circuits based on linear DNA require only PCR assembly or gene synthesis, which drastically decreases preparation time. As a purely extract-derived system, our biomolecular breadboard exhibits exonuclease activity which degrades linear DNA. We are developing multiple technologies to protect linear DNA from exonuclease degradation. These include:
- Protecting linear DNA using noncoding segments
- Inhibiting RecBCD exonuclease with gamS
- Adding thiosulfate bonds to 5' ends
Protection Sequences
The simplest way to protect linear DNA is to put additional "junk" DNA around the construct you are testing. Figure 2 shows the expression curves for different lengths of protection sequences. The overall expression with long protection sequences is about 2X less than what you see with plasmid DNA (compare the plots below to the 2nM plasmid DNA expression levels in Figure 1).
GamS
The GamS protein can be used to protect linear DNA. GamS is a shortened version of the lambda phage Gam protein, which inhibits activity of the exonuclease RecBCD (Murphy, 2007). Figures 3 and 4 show time responses for expression of linear DNA using GamS. Using a combination of GamS and protection sequences, it is possible to get approximately 60% of the expression that you get from plasmid DNA.
|
Thiosulfate Bonds
We have also tried using thiosulfate bonds to protect linear DNA. These have little effect.
Protein Degradation
Implementing protein degradation is integral to enabling the function of many dynamical circuits, such as oscillators or feed-forward loops. We have been exploring the overexpression of AAA ATPases ClpXP to selectively target proteins with degradation tags. Initial experiments indicate that ClpXP, when overexpressed, can accelerate degradation of purified eGFP-ssrA (Fig. 1). We will further characterize this AAA ATPase family, as well as try to demonstrate its use through an incoherent feed-forward loop. We have not been able to replicate the results by adding purified ClpXP protein. However, we intend to express ClpXP off of plasmids or to create custom extract with ClpXP already overexpressed to enable rapid protein degradation.
Environmental Context
The TX-TL system can be used to study the operation of circuits in different environmental contexts, including salts, energy levels and temperature.
Magnesium and Potassium concentration
|
Temperature
|
|