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Method Article
CRISPR-associated protein Cpf1 can be guided by a specially designed CRISPR RNA (crRNA) to cleave double-stranded DNA at desired sites, generating sticky ends. Based on this characteristic, a DNA assembly standard (C-Brick) was established, and a protocol detailing its use is described here.
CRISPR-associated protein Cpf1 cleaves double-stranded DNA under the guidance of CRISPR RNA (crRNA), generating sticky ends. Because of this characteristic, Cpf1 has been used for the establishment of a DNA assembly standard called C-Brick, which has the advantage of long recognition sites and short scars. On a standard C-Brick vector, there are four Cpf1 recognition sites – the prefix (T1 and T2 sites) and the suffix (T3 and T4 sites) – flanking biological DNA parts. The cleavage of T2 and T3 sites produces complementary sticky ends, which allow for the assembly of DNA parts with T2 and T3 sites. Meanwhile, a short "GGATCC" scar is generated between parts after assembly. As the newly formed plasmid once again contains the four Cpf1 cleavage sites, the method allows for the iterative assembly of DNA parts, which is similar to those of BioBrick and BglBrick standards. A procedure outlining the use of the C-Brick standard to assemble DNA parts is described here. The C-Brick standard can be widely used by scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, and even amateurs.
The standardization of DNA biological parts is important for the development of synthetic biology1. The development of a DNA assembly procedure can replace ad hoc experimental designs and remove many of the unexpected outcomes that arise during the assembly of genetic components into larger systems. The BioBrick standard (BBF RFC 10) was one of the earliest proposed DNA assembly standards. It uses the prefix sequence (containing EcoRI and XbaI cutting sites) and the suffix sequence (containing SpeI and PstI cutting sites)2,3. Because XbaI and SpeI have complementary cohesive ends, BioBrick DNA parts that are cut with XbaI and SpeI can be joined together, generating a new BioBrick for further iterative assembly.
Some defects have been identified with the use of the BioBrick standard4. For example, it produces an 8-bp scar between the DNA parts, which does not allow for the construction of in-fusion proteins. Besides, the four abovementioned types of 6-bp restriction sites must be removed from the DNA parts, which is very inconvenient. The BglBrick standard was established to solve the first problem5. It creates a 6-bp "GGATCT" scar, producing Gly-Ser and allowing for the fusion of multiple proteins or protein domains. iBrick was developed to deal with the second problem6. It uses homing endonucleases (HEs) that recognize long DNA sequences. As the HE recognition sites rarely exist in natural DNA sequences, the iBrick standard can be used for the direct construction of iBrick parts without modifying their DNA sequences. However, the iBrick standard leaves a 21 bp scar between the DNA parts, which might be the reason for its unpopularity.
In recent years, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system has developed rapidly7,8. Among the CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins, Cas9 endonuclease from Streptococcus pyogenes is now widely used. It mostly introduces double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) with blunt ends9.
In 2015, Zhang and coworkers characterized Cpf1 (CRISPR from Prevotella and Francisella 1) for the first time. It belongs to the class 2 type V CRISPR-Cas system and is a CRISRP RNA (crRNA)-guided endonuclease10. Unlike Cas9, Cpf1 introduces a DSB with a 4 or 5 nt 5' overhang10. Based on this characteristic, Cpf1 was used to develop a DNA assembly standard, C-Brick4. On a C-Brick standard vector, four Cpf1 target sites of prefixed T1/T2 and suffixed T3/T4 flank the biological parts; this is similar to the BioBrick standard. As the cleavage of T2 and T3 sites produces complementary sticky ends, it is possible to perform the iterative assembly of DNA parts while generating a "GGATCC" scar between the parts. Notably, the C-Brick standard has two main advantages: recognizing long target sequences and leaving short scars. The 6 bp "GGATCC" scar generated by C-Brick encodes Gly-Ser, which allows for the construction of fusion proteins. Moreover, the C-Brick standard is also partially compatible with the BglBrick and BioBrick standards.
1. Preparation of crRNA
2. Construction of C-Brick Parts ( i.e., the Insertion of Biological Parts into a C-Brick Standard Vector)
NOTE: This step has three sub-steps. For short biological parts (e.g., promoters and terminators), it is best to use the direct PCR method to insert the biological parts into a C-Brick standard vector4. The whole vector sequence is shown in the supplementary data, and the prefix and suffix sequence is shown in Figure 1 (step 2.1, below). For biological parts that can be easily obtained via PCR (e.g., with templates of genomic DNA, plasmids, or de novo synthesized DNA sequences), it is best to use the seamless assembly method to insert the biological parts into a C-Brick standard vector (step 2.2, below). For those parts obtained from BioBrick and BglBrick standards, restriction enzyme-mediated digestion and T4 DNA ligase-mediated ligation can be used to insert the biological parts into a C-Brick standard vector (step 2.3, below).
3. C-Brick Assembly (Figure 2)
This protocol demonstrated the assembly of three chromoprotein cassettes (cjBlue (BBa_K592011), eforRed (BBa_K592012), and amilGFP (BBa_K592010)). First, the coding sequences of the three abovementioned genes and terminators were individually cloned into a C-Brick standard vector. Short DNA parts, promoter and terminator, were introduced into the C-Brick vector through PCR amplification using primers containing the short DNA parts on the 5' terminal. This was followed by the self-liga...
This protocol describes a procedure for the DNA assembly standard C-Brick. The most important step in this protocol is the linearization of the C-Brick standard vector; incomplete cleavage of the vector could seriously affect the success rate. Additionally, although Cpf1 mainly cleaves target DNA sequences in the "18-23" cleavage pattern, inaccurate cleavage near the two bases was also detected4, which can cause a small number of mutations after DNA assembly. Therefore, Sanger sequencing i...
The authors have nothing to disclose.
We thank Shanghai Tolo Biotech for their technical assistance during the development of the C-Brick standard. This work was supported by grants from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB19040200).
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Comercial Oligonucleotide | Sangon Biotech | ||
10x Taq PCR Buffer | Transgen | #J40928 | |
Ultra Pure Distilled Water | Invitrogen | 10977-015 | |
5x RNA Transcription Buffer | Thermo Scientific | K0441 | |
T7 RNA polymerase | Thermo Scientific | #EP0111 | |
NTP mixture | Sangon | #ND0056 | |
RRI (Recombinant RNase Inhibitor) | Takara | 2313A | |
RNA Clean & Concentrator-5 | Zymo Research | R1015 | |
UV-Vis Spectrometer | Thermo Scientific | Nano-Drop 2000c | |
2x Phanta Max Buffer | Vazyme | PB505 | PCR buffer |
dNTPs | Transgen | AD101 | |
Phanta Max Super-Fidelity DNA Polymerase | Vazyme | P505-d1 | |
Ezmax for One-step Cloning | Tolobio | 24303-1 | seamless assembly kit |
5x Buffer for Ezmax One-step Cloning | Tolobio | 32006 | |
BamHI | NEB | #R0136L | |
BamHI-HF | NEB | #R3136L | |
BglII | NEB | #R0144L | |
XbaI | NEB | #R0145L | |
SpeI | NEB | #R3133L | |
10x Buffer 3 | NEB | #B7003S | |
10x CutSmart Buffer | NEB | B7204S | |
10x T4 DNA ligase Buffer | Tolobio | 32002 | |
T4 PNK | Tolobio | 32206 | |
T4 DNA ligase | Tolobio | 32210 | |
DpnI | NEB | #R01762 | |
SV Gel and PCR clean-up system | Promega | A9282 | |
Plasmid Mini Kit I | Omega | D6943-02 | plasmid preparation kit |
thermosensitive alkaline phosphatase | Thermo Scientific | #EF0651 | FastAP |
10x Cpf1 buffer | Tolobio | 32008 | |
Cpf1 | Tolobio | 32105 | FnCpf1 |
thermocycler | Applied Biosystems | veriti 96 well | |
C-Brick standard vector | Tolobio | 98101 | |
E. coli [DH10B] | Invitrogen | 18297010 | |
Luria-Bertani media (tryptone) | Oxoid | LP0042 | |
Luria-Bertani media (yeast extract) | Oxoid | LP0021 | |
Luria-Bertani media (NaCl) | Sangon Biotech | B126BA0007 |
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