Versatile genetic assembly system (VEGAS) to assemble pathways for expression in S. cerevisiae

Leslie A. Mitchell, James Chuang, Neta Agmon, Chachrit Khunsriraksakul, Nick A. Phillips, Yizhi Cai, David M. Truong, Ashan Veerakumar, Yuxuan Wang, María Mayorga, Paul Blomquist, Praneeth Sadda, Joshua Trueheart, Jef D. Boeke

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We have developed a method for assembling genetic pathways for expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our pathway assembly method, called VEGAS (Versatile genetic assembly system), exploits the native capacity of S. cerevisiae to perform homologous recombination and efficiently join sequences with terminal homology. In the VEGAS workflow, terminal homology between adjacent pathway genes and the assembly vector is encoded by 'VEGAS adapter' (VA) sequences, which are orthogonal in sequence with respect to the yeast genome. Prior to pathway assembly by VEGAS in S. cerevisiae, each gene is assigned an appropriate pair of VAs and assembled using a previously described technique called yeast Golden Gate (yGG). Here we describe the application of yGG specifically to building transcription units for VEGAS assembly as well as the VEGAS methodology. We demonstrate the assembly of four-, five- and six-gene pathways by VEGAS to generate S. cerevisiae cells synthesizing β-carotene and violacein. Moreover, we demonstrate the capacity of yGG coupled to VEGAS for combinatorial assembly.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6620-6630
Number of pages11
JournalNucleic acids research
Volume43
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 27 2015

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics

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