Team:British Columbia/Notebook/Protocols/RepeatSpacerAssembly
From 2013.igem.org
iGEM Home
Combinatorial Assembly of CRISPR Repeat-Spacer-Repeat arrays from oligonucleotides
Oligonucleotide design
Common sequences: The following common sequences are required (all sequences are 5’ – 3’) BB Prefix-Repeat: GTTTCTTCGAATTCGCGGCCGCTTCTAGAG GTTTTAGAGCTGTGTTGTTTCGAATGGTTCCAAAAC Repeat-BB Suffix: 5 /5Phos/TTTTAGAGCTGTGTTGTTTCGAATGGTTCCAAAAC TACTAGTAGCGGCCGCTGCAGGAAGAAAC Repeat: 5 /5Phos/GTTTTAGAGCTGTGTTGTTTCGAATGGTTCCAAAAC PCR Assembly F: GTTTCTTCGAATTCGCGGCCGCTTCTAGAG PCR Assembly R: GTTTCTTCCTGCAGCGGCCGCTACTAGTA
Spacer-specific sequences: Each spacer requires 3 oligonucleotides: Spacer sequence. The 30 base sequence upstream of the PAM recognition site. e.g. /5Phos/ctcgtcacatggaagtatttgcaactctta Front splint: 10 bases complementary to the 5’ end of the spacer with 11 bases complementary to the 3’ end of the repeat. E.g. atgtgacgagGTTTTGGAACC Back splint: 12 bases complementary to the 3’ end of the repeat with 10 bases complementary to the 3’ end of the spacer. E.g. CAGCTCTAAAACtaagagttgcaa
Note if the Repeat-BB Suffix, Repeat and Spacer sequences were not chemically phosphorylated during synthesis, enzymatically phosphorylate them before annealing and ligation.
Anneal and ligate Oligonucleotides. Assemble the annealing/ligation buffer: 1× T4 Ligation Buffer, 50 % PEG-8000, 0.1 % Tween-20, and add each oligonucleotide to a final concentration of 10 nM. Heat to 95 °C for 3 minutes and slowly cool to 25 °C at 2 °C per minute. Note that several spacer/split combinations can be mixed into the same reaction to assemble larger, diverse arrays. Add T4 DNA ligase (to 8 U/µL final concentration), and incubate at 25 °C for 2 hours. Heat inactivate at 65 °C for 10 minutes.
Select and amplify assembled sequences.
Assemble a PCR reaction to select and amplify correctly assembled sequences: 1× Phusion HF Buffer, 0.1 % Tween-20, 0.25 mM each dNTP, 3 % DMSO, 500 nM each forward and reverse primer, 0.05 U/µL Phusion Polymerase and ligation product at a final concentration of 1/100 ×. Cycle the reaction at 98 °C for 30s, then 25 cycles of 98 °C for 15s, 72 °C for 60 s, then hold at 72 °C for 5 minutes.
Gel purify amplified sequences As it is possible to assemble several different sequences (one spacer, two spacers, etc.) it is necessary to gel purify species before cutting and transformation. Run samples on a mini 10 % TBE-PAGE gel at 100 V for 1.5 hours (until bromophenol blue runs off of the gel). Excise and purify the desired spacer-repeat lengths.