The BioBricks Foundation:Standards/Technical/Formats

Biobrick Formats: This working group aims to specify Biobrick DNA formats.

Aim / Application scenarios for this standard

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Overview over existing and proposed Biobrick formats

All biobrick formats proposed so far follow the same basic scheme where restriction and ligation of two biobricks forms a new biobrick:

classic Biobrick format (BBa)

This is the format used by most iGem teams and most BioBricks in the MIT registry.

prefix		suffix
5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAGA G EcoRI NotI XbaI	...part...	T ACTAGT A GCGGCCG CTGCAG 3' SpeI NotI PstI
Protein coding prefix
5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAG EcoRI NotI XbaI	ATG.part

Fusing two parts leaves the following scar:

5' ...part A...

TACTAGAG * *

...part B... 3'

description at parts.mit.edu

Advantages

• standard
• well tested and documented
• native protein start codon can be preserved
• large and still growing set of parts

Disadvantages

• no protein fusions (frame shift, stop codon)
• a single mutation (at the fused region) can upset the setup?

Biofusion (Silver lab)

The Silver lab modified the classic 1.0 format to allow for protein fusions:

Prefix		Suffix
5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAGA EcoRI NotI XbaI	...part...	ACTAGT A GCGGCCG CTGCAG 3' SpeI NotI PstI

Fusing two parts now leaves the following scar:

5' ...part A...

ACTAGA T R

...part B... 3'

description by Silver lab

Advantages

• in-frame fusion of protein parts
• restriction-compatible to 1.0 parts -- no new enzymes
• also protein parts can, theoretically, be fused N-terminally to to BBa protein parts, as long as the frameshift is corrected by an adapter part

Disadvantages

• Arg in scar can be problematic
• N-terminal Thr-Arg = destabilization signal (N-end rule)
• Dam methylation blocks cloning when prefix is followed by "TC"
• unexpected side-effects for users not aware of the shortened prefix/suffix
• non-coding parts may be not functionally compatible due to the changed bp distance
• frameshift with respect to what is expected from protein coding 1.0 parts
• not possible to preserve native protein start (as in 1.0 coding)

Expression parts (Freiburg iGem2007 team)

The Freiburg iGem2007 team proposed a more radical modification or rather extension of BBa, which would enable protein fusions but alleviate the disadvantages of the Biofusion format:

Prefix		Suffix
5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAGA GT GCCGGC EcoRI NotI XbaI Met NgoMIV	...part...	ACCGGT TAAT ACTAGT A GCGGCCG CTGCAG 3' AgeI * SpeI NotI PstI
"N-part" prefix
5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAG EcoRI NotI XbaI	ATG.part

Fusing two parts now leaves the following scar:

5' ...part A...

ACCGCC T G

...part B... 3'

description by Freiburg iGem team

For (rare) cases where the native ATG needs to be conserved, the Freiburg team introduces an "N-part" which has the classic BBa coding part prefix and the Expression part suffix. N-parts would need to be cut with XbaI in place of NgoMIV.

Advantages

• in-frame fusion of protein parts
• benign protein scar
• N-end rule safe (long protein half-life)
• both new enzymes can be heat-inactivated
• stand-alone protein expression (start + stop in prefix / suffix)
• full BBa compatibility -- functionally & compositionally equivalent to BBa protein coding part
• blunt-cutting isochizomer of NgoMIV (NaeI) -- possibility of directional cloning with two inner restriction sites enables part transfer between different formats and other potentially interesting transfer reactions.

Disadvantages

• not compatible to BioFusion protein parts (frame shift + stop codon), but see below!

Expression / BioFusion format conversion strategies

Expression -> BioFusion conversion vectors

Construction vectors with a modified Freiburg prefix / suffix could bring a protein part in frame with BioFusion parts and remove the STOP between the AgeI and SpeI site. Restriction / ligation with AgeI + NaeI can (theoretically) transfer Expression parts into this conversion vector which can then be used for normal BioFusion cloning (at the cost of adding a T G before and after the part). NaeI is an isoschizomer to NgoMIV but generates blunt ends which should allow for a directional transfer.

5' GAATTC GCGGCCGC T TCTAGA GCCGGC EcoRI NotI XbaI NgoMIV

...part...

ACCGGT ACTAGT A GCGGCCG CTGCAG 3' AgeI SpeI NotI PstI

BioFusion --> Expression part conversion

None really. Introducing the modified flanks by PCR seems the only way.

The Berkeley (BBb) Format

BBb is used by several researchers at UC Berkeley and is based on idempotent assembly with BamHI and BglII restriction enzymes. In a nutshell, most plasmids look like this:

Prefix		Suffix
5' GAATTC atg AGATCT EcoRI BglII	...part...	GGATCC taa CTCGAG 3' BamHI * PstI

Fusing two parts leaves the following scar:

5' ...part A...

GGATCT G S

...part B... 3'

Note, however, that BBb is intended as a minimal physical assembly standard, and only those features needed for interconversion of BBb plasmids are formally defined. Therefore, "atg" and "taa" spacers are not core definitions of the standard.

Formal Definition:

• A BBb part is a DNA sequence flanked on the 5' end by "GATCT" and on the 3' end by "G" lacking BglII, BamHI, EcoRI, and XhoI restriction sites
• A BBb vector is a DNA sequence flanked on its 5' end by "GATCC" and on its 3' end by "A"
• A BBb entry vector has a unique EcoRI site, no BamHI or BglII restriction sites, and at most one XhoI site 5' to the EcoRI site
• A BBb plasmid is represented as <vector_name>-<part_name> and has the sequence obtained by concatenating the vector and part sequences
• Further definition constraints are "sub-standards" of the BBb format

Advantages

• in-frame fusion of protein parts
• benign protein scar
• enzymes selected for efficient cutting

Disadvantages

• BglII cannot be heat-inactivated -- current 3A standard assembly won't work
• incompatible to BBa format

Tom Knight's BBb proposal

Tom Knight has recently proposed to replace BBa by the following format:

Prefix		Suffix
5' GAATTC...ACTAGT EcoRI SpeI	...part...	GCTAGC...CTCGAG 3' NheI PstI

Fusing two parts would then leave the following scar:

5' ...part A...

GCTAGT A S

...part B... 3'

Advantages

• in-frame fusion of protein parts
• benign protein scar
• introduction of only one new enzyme
• NheI is rare in the E. coli genome -- less background from genomic DNA
• NheI can be heat-inactivated

Disadvantages

• incompatible to BBa format

Comparison of different format proposals

	BBa	Silver	Freiburg	Berkeley	Knight
protein issues
(1) protein fusion?	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
(2) good protein scar?	n/a	no	yes	yes	yes
(3) N-end rule save?	n/a	no	yes	yes	yes
(4) native ATG after RBS part?	coding part	no	N-part	no	p-RBS
(4) native ATG after Kozak part?	no	no	no	no	no
BBa compatibility
(5) same ass. enzymes?	yes	yes	no	no	no
(6) restriction-compatible?	yes	yes	yes	no	no
(7) ..side effects?	none	some	none	n/a	n/a
(8) transfer with blunt isochizomer?	no	no	yes	no	no
standard assembly issues
(9) heat inactivation?	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
(10) max. restr. site occurrence in E. coli	<200	<200	1800(Age)	700(Bgl)	300(nhe)
(11) enzyme efficiency?	ok	ok	?	good	?

Explanations:

_{(2) good meaning small and biochemically nonperturbing}

(3) Some N-terminal amino acids are strong destabilization signals in both pro- and eucaryotes. The assembly scar turns into the protein N-terminal if a RBS+start or Kozak+start part is coupled with the protein part -- the scar should hence not code for destabilizing residues.

(4a) Some protein parts, in particular signaling peptides, critically depend on preserving their sequence at the N-terminal. That means any additional scar residues between a "start" part and the old N-terminal would disrupt function. Procaryotic RBS tolerate a variable 6bp spacer between RBS and AUG and special parts-layout can shift the assembly scar into this spacer. BBa and Freiburg define a specialized sub-format where the ATG is shifted into the part and partly overlaps with the end of the scar. p-RBS: Tom's assembly scar ends in ATG and RBS parts could thus be redesigned to furnish (start-less) protein parts with the ATG.

(4b) All bets are, apparently, off for eucaryotic proteins where the Kozak reaches 4 bp (ATG G) into the reading frame. Only a scar-less assembly method would allow us to freely combine special Kozak parts (lacking ATGG) with special N-term protein parts (starting with ATG). Kozak and N-terminal signaling peptides are thus not decomposable with any of the current schemes.

entirely different strategies

IIS restriction and multi-fragment ligation

The IIS restriction strategy from the UCSF iGem2007 team could probably be extended into a more general multi-ligation Biobrick system: UCSF 2007 cloning strategy

BioBrick ++

... was an early (2004) proposal for a more versatile BioBrick format, which somehow didn't catch on. BioBrick ++ is based on a sophisticated combination of IIS (offsite cutters) and nicking restriction enzymes, and was intended to allow both seamless and normal BioBrick assembly, flipping of BioBricks and other operations. There are some disadvantages though [Raik's opinion, add your own view]:

(1) the large combination of restriction sites makes the system not quite easy to understand. (2) ++ was designed without keeping protein fusions in mind -- the proposed standard assembly would again introduce a frameshift and a stop codon, although the more sophisticated blunt assembly would of course work for protein fragments. (3) the different assembly methods produce different frames. (4) Some of the proposed enzymes or ligation schemes may not behave as ideally as assumed (?) (5) Several of the proposed "operations" involve two sequential restriction/ligation/transformation cycles which, in practice, may amount to more work then a normal single step conversion by PCR.

Nevertheless, BioBrick ++ describes, at least, two core innovations that may be very helpful for a second (or third?) generation BioBrick format:

1. IIS-restriction (offsite cutting) in prefix and suffix uncouples the cohesive ends from the enzyme recognition sites -- overhangs can therefore end directly at the part boundary (allowing for blunt ligation strategies and parts "upgrade")
2. Construction plasmids can be created with any overhang by inside-out IIS restriction or with nicking enzymes.