Build-a-Plasmid
To prevent transcriptional read-through into neighboring genetic circuits, engineers place this sequence directly after the gene of interest to disrupt the elongation complex and release the nascent RNA.
What is a Transcriptional Terminator?
NOT STOP CODON**
You have a 1 M stock solution. How much stock do you need to make 100 mL of a 0.1 M solution?
What is: 10 mL?
This macromolecular technique uses an electric field to migrate charged molecules, like DNA or proteins, through a porous matrix based on size.
What is Electrophoresis?
These two Nobel Prize–recognized molecular biology methods includes one technique for massively amplifying DNA and another for determining its exact nucleotide sequence.
What are: PCR and Sanger sequencing?
Presidents/Board must remain mute
The names of the four people who were presidents of Genehackers this year.
Who are Bloom, Sofia, Nicole, and Della?
This specific cis-regulatory element is placed directly downstream of a strong promoter to bind a repressor protein; it acts as a molecular gate that opens only when a specific chemical inducer is added.
What is an Operator?
You need a 25 µL PCR reaction with 0.5 µM primers from a 10 µM stock. How many µL of primer do you add per reaction?
What is: 1.25 µL per primer?
This purification method separates compounds based on their differential partitioning between a mobile phase and a stationary phase.
What is Chromatography?
This DNA assembly method uses overlapping homologous ends and a three-enzyme mix to seamlessly join fragments together.
What is: Gibson Assembly?
This animal has been commandeered for the genehackers logo
This highly conserved purine-rich sequence is placed precisely 8 base pairs upstream of the start codon in prokaryotic plasmids to align the mRNA correctly for translational machinery (30S subunit).
What is the Shine-Dalgarno Sequence? (Accept RBS / Ribosome Binding Site).
You prepare 300 mL LB + 100 µg/mL ampicillin.
You plate it into 30 plates of 10 mL each.
How many µL of 100 mg/mL stock total do you need?
What is: 300 µL?
This phenomenon describes the dramatic increase in UV light absorbance at 260 nm when double-stranded DNA denatures into single strands, allowing researchers to determine the melting temperature of the DNA. It has also allowed researchers to determine that the genome of reoviruses is dsRNA, as dsRNA has a higher melting point than dsDNA.
What is the hyperchromic effect? (accept hyperchromicity).
This enzyme, discovered in retroviruses, converts RNA into DNA and changed molecular biology forever.
Reverse Transcriptase
You can have three guesses for this problem if your group answers.
This is the most dangerous phrase in a molecular biology lab.
What is: “I’m pretty sure I labeled it”?
This short DNA region contains multiple unique restriction enzyme recognition sites grouped together, providing a convenient doorway for inserting foreign DNA fragments.
What is a Multiple Cloning Site? (Accept MCS or Polylinker).
How many grams of NaOH (Molar Mass = 40 g/mol) are required to prepare 500 mL of a 1 M solution?
20 grams = (0.5 x 1 x 40)
This analytical assay directly measures the metabolic flux of engineered pathways by feeding cells custom isotopically labeled substrates and analyzing downstream metabolite mass shifts.
What is 13C Metabolic Flux Analysis?
This class of catalytic RNA molecules, whose discovery earned the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, demonstrated that RNA can function as an enzyme.
What are: ribozymes?
Your group can have two guesses for this problem.
This the natural predator of all wet lab timelines.
What is: “shipping delays”?
This specialized RNA element is placed between two open reading frames in a bicistronic eukaryotic expression plasmid, allowing ribosomes to initiate translation inside the mRNA transcript without a 5' cap.
What is an IRES? (Internal Ribosome Entry Site).
You have 1 L of buffer containing 50 mM Tris base system initially at pH 7.2.
The pKa of Tris is 8.1.
You want to lower the pH to 7.0 by adding 1 M HCl.
Assume:
How many mL of 1 M HCl must be added (approximately)? Hint: use Henderson–Hasselbalch
What is: ~1.91mL of 1 M HCl?
This synthetic biology method uses computational software to design arbitrary, self-assembling RNA structures that interact to perform logic gate functions inside living cells without using proteins.
What is RNA Origami? (Accept RNA Circuitry)
These enzymes from bacteriophages recombine DNA at highly specific attachment sites and are widely used in genome engineering. The HIV pol (polymerase) gene also encodes this protein in a polyprotein which is matured through proteolytic cleavage, as to allow proviral integration.
What are: Integrases?
This is the true meaning of and iGEM “optimized protocol.”
What is: "the protocol that finally worked once”?