Team:EPF-Lausanne/Notebook/July2011

From 2011.igem.org

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Since  we were running out of the P23019 plasmid DNA to try new PCRs, we thought it would be a good idea to transform it. We used both Lilia's and Alina's cells, adding a negative control. The incubation for chloramphenicol required a two hour recovery period in the incubator, since the antibiotic is stronger. After Tuesday's meeting, we went ahead and plated the result and let the plates incubate overnight.  
Since  we were running out of the P23019 plasmid DNA to try new PCRs, we thought it would be a good idea to transform it. We used both Lilia's and Alina's cells, adding a negative control. The incubation for chloramphenicol required a two hour recovery period in the incubator, since the antibiotic is stronger. After Tuesday's meeting, we went ahead and plated the result and let the plates incubate overnight.  
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Meanwhile, moving on with the Gibson assembly of the J61002 plasmid, Vincent tried to obtain the final Gibson sequence. This sequence would be used to see if PstI and SpeI would cut differently on the assembled plasmid versus the normal J61002 plasmid: we hoped this would allow us to check that Gibson had worked successfully if we ran the ligated plasmids on a gel. Ideally, the J61002 original plasmid would cut at two locations while the Gibson plasmid would only cut in a single location (the biobrick scar would make it impossible to cut at the previous cut location). On a gel, we would see a single piece of about 3000 bp for the Gibson plasmid and two bands of approximately 2200 and 700 bp respectively for the normal plasmid.  
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Meanwhile, moving on with the Gibson assembly of the J61002 plasmid, Vincent tried to obtain the final Gibson sequence. This sequence would be used to see if PstI and SpeI would cut differently on the assembled plasmid versus the normal J61002 plasmid: we hoped this would allow us to check that Gibson had worked successfully if we ran the ligated plasmids on a gel. Ideally, the J61002 original plasmid would cut at two locations while the Gibson plasmid would only cut in a single location (the biobrick scar would make it impossible to cut at the previous cut location). On a gel, we would see a single piece of about 3000 bp for the Gibson plasmid and two bands of approximately 2200 and 700 bp respectively for the normal plasmid.
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Using the plates with the four Gibson colonies, Vincent made cultures which he put in the incubator overnight.  
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== Wednesday, 6th of July 2011==
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With the Gibson cultures in hand, Vincent made glycerol stocks (500 microL glycerol, 500 microL cells) and then mini-prepped the four cultures using the standard protocol. The resulting DNA plasmids were ready for enzyme ligase. 
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Vincent also looked at the results of the transformation of the P23019 using two different sets of competent cells and negative controls. No colonies grew, leaving us quite perplexed as to what was in the original P23019 well. Determined to find a substitute for the P23019 plasmid that would serve as a vector for the TetR sequence, we searched through the database looking for a plasmid with resistance to something other than ampicillin as well as a P15a origin of replication. We found four distinct possibilities, only two of which were available in the plates from the standard registry: pSB3K1 which has kanamycin resistance, and pSB3C5 which has chloramphenicol resistance (very similar to p23019). 
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Colonies 1 and 4 have the expected band over 3kb, which is coherent with the observation made that they did express RFP. But colonies 2 and 3 have only one band... It is likely that in these cells the plasmid recombined in a shorter way, without RFP but with the resistance; otherwise the plasmid sequence is not what we think. We'll check tomorrow on the J61002 plasmid if we do get 2 bands on the starting plasmid.
Colonies 1 and 4 have the expected band over 3kb, which is coherent with the observation made that they did express RFP. But colonies 2 and 3 have only one band... It is likely that in these cells the plasmid recombined in a shorter way, without RFP but with the resistance; otherwise the plasmid sequence is not what we think. We'll check tomorrow on the J61002 plasmid if we do get 2 bands on the starting plasmid.
Also, we have some light smaller bands in colonies 1 and 4, indicating that the miniprep is perhaps not so pure.
Also, we have some light smaller bands in colonies 1 and 4, indicating that the miniprep is perhaps not so pure.
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Vincent and Alessandro transformed the J61002 original plasmid, since we were running out of DNA with which to compare to the Gibson assembly. In addition, they transformed the results of the previous day's registry search for convenient substitute plasmids (for p23019) using Alina's cells. These were plated appropriately and put in the incubator overnight.
== Friday, 8th of July 2011 ==
== Friday, 8th of July 2011 ==
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Thanks to Henrike's expert eyes, we were able to harvest many colonies from the chloramphenicol pSB3C5 plasmid as well as many for the J61002 plasmid and the kanamycin plasmid. Since the chloramphenicol plasmid seemed closest to the p23019 plasmid for which we already had primers, it made sense to pursue the Gibson strategy for that plasmid. Alessandro and Vincent made culture tubes and put those in the incubator overnight. In the meanwhile, primers were designed for the next phase of Gibson assembly (i.e. the new pSB3C5 plasmid with the old TetR piece).
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[[File:EPFL-08-07_igem_tetRvariants_1.jpg|thumb|right|Gel from the tetR mutants PCR. 1000kb ladder.]]
[[File:EPFL-08-07_igem_tetRvariants_1.jpg|thumb|right|Gel from the tetR mutants PCR. 1000kb ladder.]]

Revision as of 18:06, 9 July 2011