A BioBrick compatible strategy for genetic modification of plants.
BACKGROUND
Plant biotechnology can be leveraged to produce food, fuel, medicine, and materials. Standardized methods advocated by the synthetic biology community can accelerate the plant design cycle, ultimately making plant engineering more widely accessible to bioengineers who can contribute diverse creative input to the design process.


RESULTS
This paper presents work done largely by undergraduate students participating in the 2010 International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition. Described here is a framework for engineering the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana with standardized, BioBrick compatible vectors and parts available through the Registry of Standard Biological Parts (http://www.partsregistry.org). This system was used to engineer a proof-of-concept plant that exogenously expresses the taste-inverting protein miraculin.


CONCLUSIONS
Our work is intended to encourage future iGEM teams and other synthetic biologists to use plants as a genetic chassis. Our workflow simplifies the use of standardized parts in plant systems, allowing the construction and expression of heterologous genes in plants within the timeframe allotted for typical iGEM projects.
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Patrick M
PM
Boyle
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Devin R
DR
Burrill
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Mara C
MC
Inniss
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Current Address: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Christina M
CM
Agapakis
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Aaron
A
Deardon
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Jonathan G
JG
DeWerd
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Michael A
MA
Gedeon
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Jacqueline Y
JY
Quinn
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Morgan L
ML
Paull
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Anugraha M
AM
Raman
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Mark R
MR
Theilmann
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Lu
L
Wang
Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Julia C
JC
Winn
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Oliver
O
Medvedik
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02131, USA.
Kurt
K
Schellenberg
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Current Address: School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
Karmella A
KA
Haynes
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Alain
A
Viel
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Tamara J
TJ
Brenner
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
George M
GM
Church
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Jagesh V
JV
Shah
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Pamela A
PA
Silver