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Fluorescence of LovTAP-transfected cells with Guava
Protocol: Fluorescence (Guava)
Prepare your samples by measuring their PCV (or estimating the cell amount according to the doubling rate). Dilute them with PBS in order to have between 200 and 500 cells/µl. Prepare at least one well that has seed cells.
Steps 1 to 4 are optional and should be done from time to time.
1. Trash the waste on the bottom right of the machine if it is full before you start.
2. Put tubes with bleach (detergent) at the right positions.
3. Run 'Cytosoft 5.3'
4. Click Clean and Shut Down -> This would take around 15 min.
5. After cleaning, click Guava Express Plus on the left column.
6. Go to Analysis mode and click 'Open Data Set'.
7. Go to the 'iGEM' folder and open the 'Setting' file.
8. Go to Acquisition - and hold here.
9. Go to the desktop and run WorkEdit 5.3.
10. Highlight the wells you are going to use, check "Acquire this sample".
11. Label them as Guava Express Plus, check the "Mix for 3 seconds", set the speed from high to medium. Optionally, fill the sample ID and the dilution factor.
12. Save and go back to Cytosoft 5.3.
13. Go to Acquisition, start the worklist.
14. Place the 96-well plate into the tray, make sure the A1 well is where it should be.
15. Name the file as 'Today's date_title'
16. When you are asked to adjust the settings, check a well that contains seed cells.
17. Compare with the worklist, check if the flow and the amount of cells detected are reasonable.
18. Click "Next step" and then "Resume".
19. Wait until all the wells are measured - data will be saved automatically.
20. Take the 96-well plate out and insert the tubes that are required for cleaning.
21. Go to Main menu and click 'Clean and shut down'.
Took Guava measurements.
PCR purification of the BioBricked RO
Protocol: PCR Cleanup
After doing a PCR, the resulting DNA should be cleaned up to get
rid of the primers, polymerases, dNTPs and the various other reagents
used in the PCR. This can also be used to remove small fragments
of DNA from other sources (such as digestions).
We used Macherey-Nagel's "Nucleospin® Gel and PCR clean-up" kit. The manual can be found here: Gel and PCR clean-up Manual
The kit uses a silica membrane to bind DNA which is then washed with several different buffers. The final step is the removal from the membrane by elution and recovery of our cleaned DNA.
Note: To increase the yield we applied the optional steps in 4 and 5 in the PCR cleanup protocol on pages 18 and 19. By incubating the columns at 70 degrees and eluting the DNA with heated elution buffer the yield of longer fragments can be increased.
A PCR cleanup with the usual kit was performed on the readout BioBrick PCR to get rid of the primers.
Digestion of the backbone and melanopsin
Protocol: Restriction site digestion
- Look for the best pair of restriction sites, ideally with similar digestion temperatures and times.
- NEBcutter for finding cutting enzymes.
- Double Digest Finder for the parameters.
- Calculate the amounts required of:
- DNA
- Buffer (usually from 10x to 1x)
- BSA, if needed (usually from 100x to 1x)
- Enzymes (depends on the amount of DNA)
- Water
- Get the recommended buffer (and BSA if needed) from the freezer and let defreeze.
- Mix all the ingredients, except DNA, in a tube.
- Note: Enzymes should stay no longer than a couple of minutes out of the freezer. Don't touch the bottom of the tubes! Don't vortex!
- Distribute the mix in as many tubes as DNA samples and add the DNA.
- Keep in the Thermomixer at the recommended temperature.
Sowmya's recommended amounts (50 µl total solution):
- 5 µl of 10x buffer
- 0.5 µl of 100x BSA
- 1 µl of each enzyme
- 5 µl of DNA
- 37.5 (up to 50 µl) of water.
Protocol based on what was done on July the 4th.
The pSB1C3 and the melanopsin PCR backbone were digested with XbaI and PstI.
Ligation
Protocol: Ligation
Ligation is a method of combining several DNA fragments into a single plasmid. This is often the
step following a PCR (and a PCR cleanup) or a gel extraction. You can also do a "dirty" ligation, where you follow a certain number of digestions directly by a ligation.
- Download the following spreadsheet : File:Team-EPF-Lausanne Ligation.xls
- Fill in the pink areas with the vector and fragment concentration, their size and the ratio.
- Add all the suggested ingredients order in a microcentrifuge tube, in the order they appear.
- Ligate for 2 hours at 14ºC.
- Immediately transform competent bacteria with the ligation product.
Note: This protocol hasn't been optimized for blunt-end ligation (though it might still work).
Ligated the digested pSB1C3 with the readout. Also ligated the NFAT biobrick (digested with EcoRI and SpeI) with its pSB1C3 backbone (digested with the same enzymes).
