We set out to develop a quick, easy process for the expansion of basic parts into a part families. Our method employs a suped-up mutagenic PCR protocol that uses standard VF2 and VR primers and materials most iGEM teams already have on hand. We chose to prototype this process by creating a part family from the LacI promoter R0010, and to mutate GFP to visually assess our ability to create functional protein mutants.

As of November 2011, we have a functioning part family generation prcess and seven well-characterized LacI promoter mutants and eight GFP mutants (two of which have been lovingly named Orange-Mutated Green Fluorescent Protein or [OMGfp] 1 and 2) which await further characterization.

We have also begun the process of generating part families from the TetR (R0040) and Lambda c1 (R0051) promoters, which are currently being selected for screening.