Team:UNIPV-Pavia/Measurements

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UNIPV TEAM 2011

Contents

Measuring promoters transcriptional strength

Measuring pTet transcriptional strength

  1. Streak long term storage glycerol stocks on a LB agar plate + Cm12.5, in order to have single colonies (don't forget positive and negative controls). Let them grow over night at 37°C.
  2. Pick 3 colonies from each clone and inoculate it in 1 ml M9 + Cm12.5 in a falcon tube; let them grow over night at 37 °C, 220 rpm.
  3. Dilute cultures 1:500 in 1 ml of M9 + Cm12.5 and let them grow at 37°C, 220 rpm for three hours.
  4. Induce cultures in falcon tube with anhydrotetracycline (aTc); final concentrations:
    • 0 ng/ml
    • 1 ng/ml
    • 2 ng/ml
    • 3 ng/ml
    • 4 ng/ml
    • 5 ng/ml
    • 8 ng/ml
    • 10 ng/ml
    • 50 ng/ml
    • 100 ng/ml
  5. Let the cultures grow at 37°C, 220 rpm for three hours.
  6. Aliquot 200 μl of cultures in microplate wells and measure O.D. and fluorescence with Tecan Infinite F200 microplate reader. Set the automatic procedure:
    • temperature: 37°C
    • sampling time: 5 minutes
    • 15 seconds of linear shaking (3 mm amplitude) followed by 5 seconds waiting before measurements
    • fluorescence gain: 50 - 80
    • O.D. filter: 600 nm
    • RFP filters: 535 nm (excitation) / 620 nm (emission)
    • duration time: 10 - 15 hours

Measuring pLux transcriptional strength

  1. Streak long term storage glycerol stocks on a LB agar plate + Cm12.5, in order to have single colonies (don't forget positive and negative controls). Let them grow over night at 37°C.
  2. Pick 3 colonies from each clone and inoculate it in 1 ml M9 + Cm12.5 in a falcon tube; let them grow over night at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  3. Dilute cultures 1:500 in 1 ml of M9 + Cm12.5 and let them grow for three hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  4. Induce cultures in falcon tube with 3OC6-HSL; final concentrations:
    • 0 M
    • 0.1 nM
    • 0.5 nM
    • 1 nM
    • 2 nM
    • 5 nM
    • 10 nM
    • 100 nM
  5. Let the cultures grow for three hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  6. Aliquot 200 μl of cultures in microplate wells and measure O.D. and fluorescence with Tecan Infinite F200 microplate reader. Set the automatic procedure:
    • temperature: 37°C
    • sampling time: 5 minutes
    • 15 seconds of linear shaking (3 mm amplitude) followed by 5 seconds waiting before measurements
    • fluorescence gain: 50 - 80
    • O.D. filter: 600 nm
    • RFP filters: 535 nm (excitation) / 620 nm (emission)
    • duration time: 10 - 15 hours

Constitutive BBa_J23101x promoters transcriptional strength

  1. Streak long term storage glycerol stocks on a LB agar plate + Cm12.5, in order to have single colonies (don't forget positive and negative controls). Let them grow over night at 37°C.
  2. Pick 3 colonies from each clone and inoculate it in 1 ml M9 + Cm12.5 in a falcon tube; let them grow over night at 37 °C, 220 rpm.
  3. Dilute cultures 1:500 in 1 ml of M9 + Cm12.5 and let them grow at 37°C, 220 rpm for six hours.
  4. Aliquot 200 μl of cultures in microplate wells and measure O.D. and fluorescence with Tecan Infinite F200 microplate reader. Set the automatic procedure:
    • temperature: 37°C
    • sampling time: 5 minutes
    • 15 seconds of linear shaking (3 mm amplitude) followed by 5 seconds waiting before measurements
    • fluorescence gain: 50 - 80
    • O.D. filter: 600 nm
    • RFP filters: 535 nm (excitation) / 620 nm (emission)
    • duration time: 10 - 15 hours

Measuring 3OC6-HSL synthesis and degradation

LuxI enzyme activity

  1. Inoculate 5 μl of long term glycerol stocks in 1 ml of M9 + Cm12.5 and let the cultures grow over night at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  2. Dilute cultures 1:100 in 4 ml M9 + Cm12.5 in falcon tubes and grow them for two hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  3. Induce cultures with aTc; final concentrations:
    • 6 ng/ml
    • 8 ng/ml
    • 100 ng/ml
  4. Collect supernatants (measuring the O.D. at 600 nm) at the moment of induction, after 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours by:
    • take 250 μl of cultures
    • centrifuge them 13.300 rpm, 4 minutes
    • collect 200μl of supernatants (without resupsending the pelleted bacteria)
    • let the cultures grow at 37°C, 220 rpm until the next sampling
  5. Store supernatants at -20°C and measure 3OC6-HSL concentration according to the protocol based on BBa_T9002 biosensor.

AiiA enzyme activity

  1. Inoculate 5 μl of long term glycerol stocks in 1 ml of M9 + Cm12.5 and let the cultures grow over night at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  2. Dilute cultures 1:100 in 4 ml M9 + Cm12.5 in falcon tubes and let them grow for two hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  3. Induce cultures with aTc; final concentrations:
    • 6 ng/ml
    • 8 ng/ml
    • 100 ng/ml
  4. Let the cultures grow for one more hour at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  5. Add 100 nM 3OC6-HSL.
  6. Collect supernatants (measuring the O.D. at 600 nm) at the moment of 3OC6-HSL addition, after 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours by:
    • take 250 μl of cultures
    • centrifuge them 13.300 rpm, 4 minutes
    • collect 200μl of supernatants (without resupsending the pelleted bacteria)
    • let the cultures grow at 37°C, 220 rpm until the next sampling
  7. Store supernatants at -20°C and measure 3OC6-HSL concentration according to the protocol based on BBa_T9002 biosensor.

3OC6-HSL degradation in M9 medium and cultures not expressing lactonases varying pH

  1. Inoculate 5 μl of long term glycerol stocks not expressing lactonases in 1 ml of M9 with the proper antibiotic. Use M9 at different pHs, for example pH = 6.0 and pH = 7.0. Let the cultures grow over night at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  2. Dilute cultures 1:100 in 4 ml M9 with the proper antibiotic in falcon tubes and let them grow for two hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  3. Prepare falcon tubes with M9 at pH = 6.0 and pH = 7.0.
  4. Add 100 nM 3OC6-HSL to each falcon tube.
  5. Collect supernatants (measuring the O.D. at 600 nm) at the moment of 3OC6-HSL addition, after 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours by:
    • take 250 μl of cultures
    • centrifuge them 13.300 rpm, 4 minutes
    • collect 200μl of supernatants (without resupsending the pelleted bacteria)
    • let the cultures grow at 37°C, 220 rpm until the next sampling
  6. Store supernatants at -20°C and measure 3OC6-HSL concentration according the protocol based on BBa_T9002 biosensor.

Measuring 3OC6-HSL concentration withBBa_T9002

  1. Inoculate 5 μl BBa_T9002 in 1 ml M9 with the proper antibiotic (Ampicillin when you use BBa_T9002 or Ampicillin + Chloramphenicol 12.5 mg/ml if you use T9002-ENTERO, see Freezer Management) together with a non-fluorescent culture; let them grow over night at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  2. Dilute cultures 1:100 in M9 with the proper antibiotic; let the cultures grow for two hours at 37°C, 220 rpm.
  3. Measure 3OC6-HSL concentration of the previously collected supernatants (diluting them 1:20), inducing BBa_T9002 cultures: aliquot 190μl of inducible cultures and 10 μl of supernatants in the wells of the microplate.
  4. Don't forget to build a calibration curve, by inducing BBa_T9002 cultures with known 3OC6-HSL concentrations:
    • 0 M
    • 0.1 nM
    • 0.2 nM
    • 0.5 nM
    • 1 nM
    • 2 nM
    • 5 nM
    • 10 nM
    • 100 nM
    • 1 μM
  5. Use Tecan Infinite F200 to read O.D. at 600 nm and green fluorescence, setting the automatic procedure:
    • temperature: 37°C
    • sampling time: 5 minutes
    • 15 seconds of linear shaking (3 mm amplitude) followed by 5 seconds waiting before measurements
    • fluorescence gain: 50
    • O.D. filter: 600 nm
    • GFP filters: 485 nm (excitation) / 540 nm (emission)
    • duration time: 10 - 15 hours

Data analysis

Data pre-processing

Data from TECAN Infinite F200 need to be pre-processed in order to remove spurious effects affecting measurements. Before evaluating the parameters of interest (for example the synthesis rate per cell, Scell, or Relative Promoter Unit, R.P.U.) blanking is needed:

    • each time sample of O.D. at 600 nm, (O.D.600) was subtracted the reference value (i.e. the measure of O.D. at 600 nm of the broth in which cultures grow)
    • each time sample of red and green fluorescence was subtracted the reference value (i.e. the red or green fluorescence of a non-fluorescent culture)

Doubling time evaluation

After blanking O.D.600 data you can compute the doubling time of cultures growth, i.e. the time needed to double O.D.600.
Identifying the exponential phase of growth curve can be done by visual inspection, plotting the natural logarithm of O.D.600 over time. Linear regression on logarithmic data is performed to estimate the growth rate, named μ. Finally doubling time can be evaluated as:

When measuring multiple growth for a strain this value was evaluated for each reaplicate and then average was computed.

Synthesis rate per cell (Scell) evaluation

Another interesting parameter, which describes the activity of a promoter of interest (φ), is the Scell; it needs to be measured using reporter genes as RFP or GFP.
Compute the average of the time derivative of the red or green fluorescence, divided by the O.D.600, in the time interval corresponding to the exponential growth phase:

The Scell is basic to measure the Relative Promoter Unit, a robust parameter expressing the transcriptional activity of a promoter.

R.P.U. evaluation

As described in Kelly J. et al., 2009, Relative Promoter Units express the activity of a promoter of interest (φ), reported to the one of a reference promoter, BBa_J23101 (from Anderson promoters collection):

This procedure has the advantage of being robust to variations in experimental conditions and proportional to PoPS (Polymerase Per Second) if the subsequent specifications are satisfied:

    • strain, plasmid copy number, antibiotic, growth medium, growth conditions, protein generator assembled downstream of the promoter must be the same in the promoter of interest and in BBa_J23101 reference standard
    • the reporter protein must have a half life higher than the experiment duration
Moreover the Scell of both the promoter of interest and of BBa_J23101 has to be constant.

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