Design and development of modular DNA assembly tools for Multigene Engineering and Synthetic Biology in Plants

Abstract

The post-genomics era has put at the disposal of modern plant breeders an endless list of genetic building blocks for the design of new biotechnological crops. After a first wave of single-gene transgenic with controversial public acceptance, genomic information and technology is paving the way for increasingly complex designs based in multiple gene engineering. Those designs aiming at the production of inexpensive health-promoting compounds are most likely to be welcomed by consumers. In this project we plan to develop new multigene assembling tools. During this PhD, a standardized collection of interchangeable genetic parts (including promoters, CDS, P-DNAs, etc) and vectors will be developed. The collection, inspired in Synthetic Biology standards, will be made easy-to-assemble in an interchangeable, semi-idempotent and seamless fashion by the addition of flanking recognition sites of type IIS Restriction endonucleases. The construction of the collection will facilitate multigene engineering and will constitute a first step towards enabling Synthetic Biology in plants.