Team:Nevada/Notebook/Weeks1316

Calender Weeks 13-16
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Week 13 - August 22nd-28th

E. Coli

Trc Promoter

LT:The protocol from week #11 was repeated but the transformation reaction was plated onto LB-CHL plates for proper selection. Results: The BTE digest was successful as confirmed by the gel. The trc promoter digest had the same inconclusive results as seen preciously. Colonies successfully grew from the ligation and transformation.

Pyruvate Decarboxylase & Alcohol Dehydrogenase

JC: To test viability of PDC, found information regarding Aldehyde detection plates. Since PDC converts Pyruvate to Acetaldehyde, these plates could be a quick way to test for the presence of aldehydes in our constructs. Growing s70/PDC/ADH in NEB B10 cells yielded bright pink colonies (aldehydes present).

Bay Laurel Thioesterase

MT: Five cultures of BTE coding region in the Topo vector (pUC57) were grown, and minipreped. The BTE samples and pSB1C3 were digested with Xba I and Pst I and ligated. Ligation was transformed using NEB Beta cells. Colonies were selected to culture overnight and minipreped, digested to check for correct band size.

A Free Fatty Acid Assay was done on BTE with the promoter sigma 70. A sample was also ran through a Gas chromatographer to check the length of hydrocabons we are producing. Results are in the assay section.

BTE with sigma 70 promoter and pSB1C3 were digested with EcoRI and PstI and ligated, transformed, and cultured.

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Enzymology

CL:This week we used the GC to analyze the fatty acids being produced by one of the BTE IQ cell samples (BTE13). The fatty acids were extracted from cell supernatent using hexane and tested with a carbon disulfide solvent. We used FAME standards ranging from C:8-C:19 as well as a C:19 internal standard for comparison. Results proved positive as we were looking for C:12 FA's and there were C:8, C:10 and C:12 FA's present in the sample. We suspect that the small chains could possibly be the larger C:12 chain being metabolized and we plan to further analyzed this data. This was just a test or a pre-run and we did not use a negative control or test very many samples. We plan to do a definite run next week on four new BTE samples as well as negative controls of wild-type IQ cells and a known concentration of a C:17 internal standard will be used for quantification. Also this week we performed our third ethanol assay using the BioSystems Ethanol assay kit on 4 of the ADH/PDC IQ cell cultures. We retrieved positive results for one of the samples (ACH/PDC17) with an ethanol production of 3.4mM. We are planning to perform the ADH activity assay on this culture and four new samples next week.

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Week 14 - August 29th- September 4th

E. Coli

Trc Promoter

LT:Colonies #1-15 were selected from the BTE/trc promoter transformation, inoculated in TB-CHL, and minipreped. Colonies #16-45 were selected and used for colony PCR using VF and VR primers. Half the PCR products were loaded onto a 0.7% gel to check the products. Results: There is no DNA present on the gel. It appears that a mistake was made during preparation of the PCR reaction. Only the standards were visible.

Pyruvate Decarboxylase & Alcohol Dehydrogenase

JC: To again test PDC and ADH activity, s70/PDC/ADH was transformed into NEB High Expression Iq cells. These cells were plated on the aldehyde detection plates and demonstrated a more intense pink colony than the NEB B10 cells.

Bay Laurel Thioesterase

MT: The cultures of the transformation of BTE with sigma 70 promoter in pSB1C3 were minipreped, digested with EcoRI and PstI, and checked on a 1% gel. Four of the five had full digestion. Sample #4 was sent for sequencing.

Cyano

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Enzymology

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Week 15 - September 5th-11th

E. Coli
Trc Promoter

LT:BTE in puc57 was recultured in LB-Amp broth from glycerol stocks. Cultures were minipreped and quantitated using Nanodrop spectrophotometry.

The trc promoter was isolated from pTRC99A plasmid using PCR. Products were purified using the QIAquick PCR purification protocol and quantitated using Nanodrop spectrophotometry. Products were verified by running them on a 1.2% agarose gel. Results: The PCR reaction was successful. There is a band corresponding to the 100bp fragment that we expected to see.

Pyruvate Decarboxylase & Alcohol Dehydrogenase

JC: Since 70/PDC/ADH construct is producing aldehydes at this point (PDC is working), prepared for submission to iGEM. The construct was digested and ligated into pSB1C3 and transformed into NEB10 β cells. Selected single colonies from LB-Chloramphenicol plates and single colony streaked onto LB-Chl and LB-Amp plates to perform plasmid check. Grew liquid cultures in LB-Chl and performed minipreps and nanodrop analysis.

To confirm s70/PDC/ADH insertion into pSB1C3, 0.5ug of s70/PDC/ADH/pSB1C3 was digested with EcoRI and PstI. Digestions were run on a 1% agarose gel, and bands obtained confirmed s70/PDC/ADH (3089bp) and pSB1C3 (2070bp).

s70/PDC/ADH/pSB1C3 was sent to Nevada Genomics Center for sequencing.

Cyano

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Enzymology

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Week 16 - September 12th-18th

E. Coli

Pyruvate Decarboxylase & Alcohol Dehydrogenase

JC: The EnzyChrom Ethanol Detection Kit was used again to test ethanol production in s70/PDC/ADH in NEB Iq E. coli cells. The cultures were grown with the addition of 2% glucose, to test the effects of glucose on E. coli growth. With these constructs, 0.02% Ethanol was detected.

Bay Laurel Thioesterase

MT: The sequencing results of sigma 70/ BTE in pSB1C3 showed a succseful clone and is ready for submission to iGEM.

A Free Fatty Acid Assay was done on the BTE with sigma 70 promter in Iq cells. The samples were also ran through a Gas Chromotagrapher to determine concentration of C-12 fatty acids. ( For more specific results please look in Enymology section.)



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Week 17 - September 19th-25th

E. Coli

Trc Promoter

LT:Psb1C3 was digested using Eco RI and Pst I, incubated for 1 hour at 37°C, and heat deactivated at 80°C for 20 minutes. The restriction digest was run on a 0.7% agarose gel. Results: The digest was not complete. There is plasmid DNA cut with only one of the two enzymes. However, most of the plasmid DNA was successfully digested with a band at approximately 2040bp and 900 corresponding to the plasmid and red fluorescent protein.

Psb1C3 and the trc PCR products were ligated using sticky end ligation in a 1:1 ratio and 10:1 (plasmid:insert) ratios then transformed into IQ cells. Results: The transformation was unsuccessful because a chloramphenicol vector was transformed into chloramphenicol resistant cells.

Pyruvate Decarboxylase & Alcohol Dehydrogenase

JC: To further improve ethanol production, we contacted UniPavia, who in 2009 was able to attain 3% ethanol production. They used 10% glucose and induced cultures with 1% ethanol (to improve ADH activity).

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Enzymology
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