RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Unigems: plasmids and parts to facilitate teaching on assembly, gene expression control and logic in E. coli
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.06.20.449138
DO 10.1101/2021.06.20.449138
A1 Siddall, Alex
A1 Williams, Abbie Ann
A1 Sanders, Jason
A1 Denton, Jai A.
A1 Madden, Dean
A1 Schollar, John
A1 Bryk, Jarosław
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/06/20/2021.06.20.449138.abstract
AB Synthetic biology is as an excellent vehicle for education, as it enables creative combination of engineering and molecular biology approaches for quantitative characterisations of the assembled constructs. However, there is a limited number of resources available for such applications in the educational context, where straightforward setup, easily measurable phenotypes and extensibility are of particular importance. To expand the availability of education-friendly resources to teach synthetic biology and genetic engineering, we developed Unigems, a set of 10 plasmids that enable out-of-the-box investigations of principles of gene expression control, as well as more complex designs a biological logic gate. The system uses a common high-copy plasmid backbone and a common set of primers to enable Gibson-assembly of PCR-generated or synthesised parts into a target vector. It currently has two reporter genes with either two constitutive (high- or low-level) or two inducible (lactose- or arabinose-) promoters, as well as a single-plasmid implementation of an AND logic gate. The Unigems system has already been employed in undergraduate teaching settings, during outreach events and for training of iGEM teams. All plasmids have been deposited in Addgene.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.