SynBERC:Seminar series/Ichiro Matsumura

Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 as a chassis for the directed evolution of genes and genomes Ichiro Matsumura, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine Follow link to see video: http://vimeo.com/4367036 Wedesday, April 22, 2009 noon-1 pm ET RM 449 (Kiva/Patil,) Stata Center (Building 32,) MIT Synthetic biologists generally build upon the Escherichia coli chassis, which usually necessitates a life of cloning. Acinetobacter baylyi sp. ADP1 offers two significant advantages over E. coli: natural competence, and efficient homologous recombination. I will explain how these natural advantages obviate cloning and streamline the directed evolution of genes and genomes. I will also describe the engineering of a broad host range expression vector pBAV1K (Biobrick Accepting Vector) that replicates and produces proteins in a wide variety of gram negative and gram positive bacteria. These tools enable the facile laboratory evolution of genes and chromosomes, without restriction digests or ligation reactions.