Difference between revisions of "Team:Glasgow/Description"

For construction of the RBS library, each lux gene was amplified by randomised PCR using primers with a B0032-derived master sequence for RBS. PCR products were then ligated into plasmid pSB1C3 and transformed to E. coli strain TOP10 which is a recA- mutant meaning that any unwanted gene rearrangements between chromosomal DNA and plasmid DNA can be avoided.

In order to induce expression of luxABG and luxCDE, luxA and luxC PCR products were inserted downstream the pBAD (BBA_ I0500) and R0011N (BBa_K1725080) promoters, respectively. pBAD is a widely used promoter inducible by L-arabinose, in our assays we have used 1% arabinose to activate the promoter. R0011N promoter is similar to IPTG-regulated, LacI-repressed R0011 promoter (BBa_R0011) but contains an extra NheI site to make Biobrick insertion identification easier in the restriction digests. Since we have used lacI- Top10 cells for our transformations, R0011N was constitutively active.

Colonies from the transformation plates were then washed and plasmid DNA was purified and sequenced to ensure that all 32 RBS library members were present in the sample (Figure 2). A similar approach was applied to the subsequent ligations in the assemblies of pBAD.luxABG and R0011N.luxCDE.

Once we have assembled luxA and luxB together with a pBAD promoter upstream, we wanted to determine if the construct allows cells to respond to the decanal in the environment. In addition to that, we also aimed to visualise RBS library in the construct as RBS of different strengths should cause variability in bioluminescence intensity between colonies. To start, we grew transformed cells on the L-agar with 1% arabinose and then exposed them to the 5% decanal solution. The method of decanal application that we developed involved placing 6 decanal drops of 10μl on the lid of the Petri dish with a pipette, immediately putting lids on the plates with cells and then letting the decanal to diffuse for 3-4 minutes. Plates without the lids were then photographed in the dark room at the 30s exposure and ISO 64000. We have also found out that leaving lids with decanal on the plates result in much intense bioluminescence visible by naked eye.


As seen in the Figure 3, colonies that grew on the plate containing arabinose (ara+) show bioluminescence activity in the dark while control plate with no arabinose (ara-) does not contain any bioluminescent colonies. More importantly, in the ara+ plate we observe that, for a human eye, colonies vary in bioluminescence intensity from very bright to absolutely blank colonies. Therefore, here we show that E. coli is able to uptake decanal from the environment and produce light when the expression of luxAB is turned on. Moreover, we demonstrate that some of the RBS arrangements in the pBAD.luxAB construct are more efficient than others in terms of stimulating translation initiation.

For further testing, we have picked up several colonies that exhibited different bioluminescence intensity: a range from very bright to dim or blank colonies. We tested all chosen colonies by restriction digests for the plasmid size in order to test if any of the genes are missing from the dim colonies and all colonies were confirmed to be similar in plasmid size.

In addition, we have made short streaks of each colony on ara+ plate in order to compare their brightness on a bigger resolution (Figure 4). From the picture we can clearly see colony F being the brightest colony on the plate and some of the colonies producing very little of visible bioluminescence. This again supports our hypothesis about some RBS combinations being more favourable by the E. coli translation machinery.

As mentioned before, luxG is a known flavin reductase and provides reduced flavin mononucleotide to luciferase luxAB resulting in increased bioluminescent activity. Therefore, having the pBAD.luxAB construct ready we have inserted luxG gene downstream the luxAB in order to increase the bioluminescence in cells. Transformed cells were grown on both ara+ and ara- plates and treated with decanal as described earlier.


As can be seen in the Figure 5, only colonies that have grown on the ara+ plates exhibit luminescence while control plates remain blank in the dark. Similarly to the results observed in pBAD.luxAB testing, here we also see a range of luminescence between colonies on ara+ plate most likely corresponding to the different ribosome binding sites. However, on the ara+ plates we observe only half as many colonies as on the ara- plates suggesting luxG possibly having a negative role for cell growth. To test this, we have picked 136 random colonies from the ara- plate and streaked them on new ara+ and ara-plates to see difference in survivability. Results are presented in the Figure 6 where short streaks appear to be similar on both ara+ and ara- plates with no bacterial growth disruption on the ara+ plate. Therefore, we assume that the negative luxG effect is not very severe and may be only observable on the transformation plates where colonies are formed from a single cell.


Additionally, in order to compare bioluminescence between cells where luxG is expressed and in cells where it is not, we also streaked previously described 12 pBAD.luxAB colonies and 12 brightest pBAD.luxABG colonies on the same ara+ plate. As can be seen from the Figure 7, most of the pBAD.luxABG colonies appear to exhibit brighter luminescence than the pBAD.luxAB colonies which is what we expect to see.

We have picked up the brightest pBAD.luxABG colony, determined RBS for each gene by sequencing and submitted the construct as the biobrick BBa_K17252340.

Simultaneously with the assembly of pBAD.luxABG we have also assembled R0011N.luxCDE construct using similar approaches. In order to test our RBS library in luxCDE we employed two strategies. Firstly, we wanted to test if two cells, one expressing luxABG and other expressing luxCDE, are able to produce luminescence when mixed and if so, does the bioluminescence depend on the amount of produced tetradecanal. We have mixed equal volumes of 24 R0011N.luxCDE and pBAD.luxABG (BBa_K17252340) overnight cultures in a 96-well plate (pBAD.luxABG overnight culture was grown for two hours in 1% L-arabinose before addition to the plate). However, we could not observe any bioluminescence in the wells.

We have repeated the assay, this time growing both R0011N.luxCDE and pBAD.luxABG overnight cultures together in 1% L-arabinose for several time intervals. We only tested two random R0011N.luxCDE colonies and after 3hrs we observed a very low level of bioluminescence which was different between two samples (Figure 8). This was a first proof that decanal is released by cells expressing luxCDE and can then be uptaken by cells with luxABG genes. However, due to the lack of time we did not study this process in more detail leaving it for the possible future investigations.


The second strategy that we have developed for testing our RBS library in luxCDE assembly involved generating E. coli strain with two plasmids: PSB1C3 with pBAD.luxABG and PSB343 with R0011N.luxCDE. We have used pBAD.luxABG plasmid DNA (BBa_K1725340) for the first transformation and then transformed resulting cells with R0011N.luxCDE library which was first ligated into PSB343 (plasmid with kanamycin resistance). In terms of ribosome binding sites, we aimed to have the same type of luxABG in all cells and different type of luxCDE in each cell in order to ensure that any differences in bioluminescence arise from ribosome binding sites in the luxCDE genes. Transformed cells were grown on ara+ plate over night at 37°C and kept for an hour at room temperature before photographed (Figure 9). Once again, we observed a range of bioluminescent colonies, and this time light output was seen by naked eye: we were able to see single colonies emitting different amounts of light.


We have picked up a brightest colony again, purified PSB343 plasmid and then ligated R0011N.luxCDE (BBa_K7125351) construct downstream the pBAD.luxABG (BBa_K7125350) generating new biobrick pBAD.luxABG.R0011N.luxCDE (BBa_K7125352).

During the construction of the RBS library for lux genes we have demonstrated that E. coli is able to uptake decanal present in the environment and produce bioluminescence when the expression of luxAB or luxABG is induced. In addition, we have also shown that 60μl of 5% decanal solution equally dispersed on the plate lid can successfully induce bioluminescence in cells expressing luxAB or luxABG. Finally, we have demonstrated that leaving the lid with decanal on the plate for a longer time results in much more intense luminescence visible by naked eye (Figure 10).

When testing RBS in luxCDE genes we have shown that E. coli cells expressing luxCDE might be leaking decanal to the environment to some extent as mixing them with cells expressing luxABG resulted in a weak bioluminescence. Therefore, we propose that E. coli cells might be able to communicate by decanal movement between cells.

We have compared our RBS-optimised luxABGCDE operon to the luxCDABEG operon generated by Cambridge team in 2010. Results show our strain being brighter than Cambridge team's strain and producing more intense bioluminescence (Figure 11).