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Labwork

May and June 2012

1. Arrangements for labwork
   

   • preparation of competent cells (E.coli, S.cerevisiae), agarose plates (LB, YEPD, SCD-ura,…), medium for E.coli and S.cerevisiae

2. Purchasing of the equipment (reaction tubes, glass bottles, pipette tips,..)
3. Primer design

July 2012

1. Plasmid isolation of p426, p423, pUD8e, pUD22e from E.coli
2. Isolation of chromosomal DNA of CEN.PK2-1C
3. Trials to get the genes, promoters and terminators via PCR

August 2012

1. PCR of the genes, promoters and terminators
   

   • all genes (without KO and KAH), promoters and terminators could be amplified

2. Linearization of p426 and p423 with SpeI and XhoI

Gel 1: PCR of the promoters and terminators.
There are shown the DNA fragments of the PCR with appropriate annealing temperatures. All promoters and terminators could be amplified. As templates were used the plasmids pUD8e(tHXT7, pPFK1, tTAL1, pTPI1) and pUD22e (tPFK2, tPDC1, pPGI1).

Gel 2: Linearization of p426, p423, pSB1C3 and PCR of the genes HMG-CoA, GGPPS, ERG20, Cps/Ks.
As a control it is also the circular p426 and p423 shown. The linear p426 and p423 are about 6300 bp long. pSB1C3-linear means the restriction of the plasmid with EcoRI and PstI in this case (it is 2050 bp long). As PCR templates for HMG-CoA, GGPPS and Cps/Ks were used the synthesized DNA fragments and for ERG20 chromosomal DNA of CEN.PK2-1C.

3. Biobrick production of the genes HMG-CoA, ERG20, CPS/KS
   

   • restriction of 3 µg of the genes with EcoRI and PstI
     
   • ligation of biobrick genes with linear pSB1C3
     
   • transformation of the ligation in E.coli
     
   • plasmid isolation of E.coli clones
     
   • control restriction of biobrick plasmids with EcoRI and SpeI
     

Gel 3: Control restriction of pSB1C3-HMG-CoA, pSB1C3-ERG20 and PCR of GGPPS.
The biobrick plasmids were cut with EcoRI and SpeI. The correct sizes of pSB1C3-HMG- CoA from two clones could be observed (2050 bp + 1605 bp), as well as the correct sizes of pSB1C3-ERG20 (2050 bp + 1080 bp). However the fragment of 1080 bp is very hard to see on this picture. With the PCR of GGPPS could not only amplified the correct fragment (870 bp) but also a fragment of 3000 bp.

Gel 5: Control restriction of pSB1C3-Cps/Ks.
The biobrick plasmids were cut with EcoRI and SpeI. The correct sizes of pSB1C3-Cps/ Ks from two clones could be observed (2050 bp + 2900 bp). The plasmid of clone 3 is the pSB1C3 without the insert.

4. Formation of the mevalonate overexpression plasmid via gap repair

   • first and second yeast transformation with equimolar quantities of DNA fragments for mevalonate overexpression (p426 with 7 inserts): only very small colonies could grow after the first and second transformation
   • using pure GGPPS (purification of a preparative gel) for the third yeast transformation: normal size of the colonies
   • inoculation of several clones of the third yeast transformation
   • plasmid preparation of the clones
   • transformation of the plasmids in E.coli
     

5. Amplifying pSB1C3 for biobrick production

   • trials to amplify pSB1C3, whose blunt ends were ligated and transformed in E.coli
   • pSB1C3 should be linearized by EcoRI and PstI : did not work (two fragments instead of one)
     

Gel 4: Purified GGPPS and linearization of pSB1C3.
The 870 bp fragment of the GGPPS PCR (see gel 3) were cut out from a preparative gel and then purified with a gel extraction kit (The purified GGPPS could be used for transformation, but not for constructing a biobrick. Therefore another PCR was made with a very short synthesis time. So only the 870 bp fragment was obtained.)
Because of lack of pSB1C3 the remained linear pSB1C3 was ligated and transformed in E.coli. After isolation of the plasmid it was restricted with EcoRI and PstI. But there was not only the linear fragment of 2050 bp but also another fragment about 4000 bp.

1. • preparative gel of the linear fragment: very low concentration of linear pSB1C3 (was not sufficient for ligation)

2. GC analysis

   • GC analysis of the wild type CEN.PK2-1C (standard GGOH): as expected no GGOH could be observed

3. Assembly of the KO and the KAH fragments

   • amplification of the fragments via PCR (there are four fragments of each gene with an overhang to the fragment beside of 30 bp)
   • Gibson assembly of the fragments of KO and KAH: did not work
     

Gel 6: PCR of KO and KAH fragments
Each gene consists of four fragments, which have a 30 bp overhang to the fragments beside. In order to do the Gibson Assembly, the fragments were amplified via PCR.

Gel 7: Gibson Assembly of KO and KAH
The assembly did not work, because there are only the 500 bp of the single fragments.

September 2012

• Formation of the mevalonate overexpression plasmid via gap repair
  • plasmid isolation (p426 with 7 inserts) from E.coli
  • control restriction of the plasmids with EcoRI and SpeI: one clone out of 10 got the right sizes

• Ergosterol experiment
  • idea: maybe the clones of the first and the second yeast transformation grow better after ergosterol addition (0,02 g/l)): wildtype with and without ergosterol and one of the clones with and without ergosterol (no significant difference in growth could be observed)

• GGPPS-PCR
  • PCR of GGPPS with shorter synthesis time in order to get only the correct fragment

• Amplification of pSB1C3 for biobrick production
  • transformation of pSB1C3-RFP in E.coli
  • isolation of the plasmid from E.coli
  • linearization with EcoRI and PstI: it worked (only the correct fragment was observed)

• PCR of biobrick-promoters and -terminators
  • PCR of biobrick promoters and terminators that were used to build the mevalonate overexpression plasmid

• Assembly of the KO and the KAH fragments
  • trials to assembly the KO and the KAH fragments via PCR (the overhangs were used as primer): KO worked, KAH not
  • amplification of KO

• Biobrick production of the genes GGPPS, KO and the promoters and terminators
  • restriction of 3 µg of the DNA fragments with EcoRI and PstI
  • ligation of the promoters, terminators, KO and the GGPPS with pSB1C3
  • transformation of the ligation in E.coli
  • plasmid isolation of E.coli clones
  • control restriction of biobrick plasmids with EcoRI and SpeI

• Midi-preparation of plasmids for sequencing
  • biobrick plasmids
  • mevalonate overexpression plasmid

• GC
  • GC analysis of the wild type CEN.PK2-1C with p426 and the wild type with the mevalonate overexpression plasmid in SCD-ura
  • standard GGOH

• Formation of the plasmid for steviol synthesis
  • yeast transformation with equimolar quantities of DNA fragments for steviol synthesis (p423 with 7 inserts)
  • problem: could not assemble KAH, assembled KAH1/2 and KAH3/4 were used (KAH1/2 and KAH3/4 only got a 30 bp overhang instead of a 45 bp overhang): gap repair did not work

Methods and Protocols

Plasmid Preparation

Plasmid Preparation of E.coli (Mini Preparation)

1.transfer 1,5 ml of an overnight culture in a reaction tube
2.centrifuge at 8000 rpm at RT for 5 min
3.resuspend the pellet in 100 µl solution 1
4.addition of 200 µl solution 2
5.mix till the solution is clear
6.incubate at RT for 5 min
7.addition of 150 µl cold solution 3, mix till protein clumps are build
8.incubate 10 min on ice, centrifuge 15 min with 10000 rpm
9.transfer the supernatant in a clean reaction tube
10.fill the reaction tube with 96 % EtOH, mix and let it precipitate at -20 °C for 10 min
11.centrifuge 10 min at 10000 rpm
12.wash the pellet with 70 % EtOH
13.dry the pellet and resuspend it with 30 µl water or TE buffer

Solution 1

• 50 mM glucose
• 10 mM EDTA
• 25 mM Tris-HCl pH8

Solution 2

• 0,2 M NaOH
• 1 % SDS

Solution 3

• 3 M KaAc pH 5,5

Plasmid Preparation of Saccharomyces cerevisia

1. overnight culture in 5 ml
2. centrifuge 2 ml of the cells for 1-2 min
3. wash the cells with water
4. resuspend the pellet in 400 µl buffer 1 with RNase
5. addition of 400 µl buffer 2 and mix carefully
6. addition of 2/3 volume of glass beads
7. cell destruction: vibrax the cellsin a 2 ml reaction tube for 5 min at 4°C
8. transfer 500 µl of the supernatant in a clean reaction tube
9. addition of 250 µl buffer 3, mix, incubate it for 10 min on ice
10. centrifuge at 10000 rpm, 15 min
11. transfer the supernatant in a clean reaction tube, fill with isopropanol and mix
12. centrifuge at 13000 rpm, 30 min
13. wash the pellet with cold 70 % EtOH and let it dry
14. resuspend the DNA in 30 µl water or TE buffer

P1

• 50 mM Tris/HCl pH 8
  
• 10 mM EDTA
• 100 µg/ml RNase A

P2

• 0,2 M NaOH
• 1 % SDS

P3

• 3 M KAc

Transformation

Yeast Transformation

1. Inoculate the synthetic complete medium (SC) with the strain

2. Incubate with shaking overnight at 30°C

3. Harvest the cells at a OD600 0,5-0,6 by centrifugation (3000x g, 5 min, RT)

4. Wash the cells with 0,5 vol of sterile water (resuspend by shaking, centrifugate with 3000x g, 5 min, RT)

5. Resuspend the cells in 0,01 vol of sterile water, transfer the suspension to a reaction tube and pellet the cells (3000x g, 5 min, RT)

6. Resuspend the pellet in 0,01 vol of sterile filtrated FCC (frozen competent cell) solution

7. Aliquot 50 µl of the solution into the reaction tubes

8. Store the cells at -80°C for at least one night (up to one year)

9. Mastermix for the FCC transformation mixture:

10. Prepare DNA aliquots: Solute enough DNA (e.g. 100 ng plasmid) in 54 µl of water

11. Unfreeze the cells in a 37°C block for 15-30 sec

12. Centrifuge the solution at 13000x g for 2 minutes

13. Remove the supernatant

14. Add 306 µl of FCC transformation mixture to the cells

15. Add 54 µl of the DNA to the solution and vortex shortly

16. When all the reaction tubes are prepared, vortex the samples well until all pellets are completely resoluted

17. Incubate the samples for 40 minutes at 42°C in a heating block

18. Centrifuge the cells at 13000x g for 30 sec and pour off the supernatant

19. Resuspend the cells in sterile water by vortexing

20. Spread onto the appropriate medium

21. Let the cells grow at 30°C

E.coli Transformation

PCR

Culture Medium

pH has to be regulated with KOH to pH=6.3
° contains no His, Leu, Trp and Uracil
** addition of this components depents on the respective selection medium

pH has to be regulated to pH=6.8-7.0

pH has to be regulated with NaOH to pH=7.5

Every cluture medium has to be autoclaved to be sterile.

Agar Plate

LB_ampicillin-Agar

Add 2 % agar to LB-medium. After autoclaving and cooling-down to 60 °C steril ampicillin is added. Plates were poured.

SCD-Agar

Add 2 % agar to SCD-medium. After autoclaving and cooling-down steril amino acid solution is added. Dependent on the respective selective medium Histidin (0.25 mM), Trypthophan (0.19 mM), Uracil (0.44 mM) or Leucin (0.35 mM) are added. Plates were poured.

YEPD_G418-Agar

Add 2 % agar to YEPD-medium. After autoclaving and cooling-down sterile G418 (final concentration 2g/l) is added. Plates were poured.

Gel Electrophoresis

Solve agarose in TAE by boiling it. After cooling-down to 55-60 °C gel is poured.

pH has to be regulated with glacial acetic acid to pH=8.

Kit

PCR Purification Kit from Qiagen
Gel Extraction Kit from Qiagen
Midi Plasmid Preparation Kit from Qiagen