Team:Virginia Commonwealth

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Promoter design, characterization and consequences

The generation of well-characterized genetic parts is a prerequisite for the rational design and construction of reliable genetically-encoded devices and systems. However, most publicly available parts (including those in the Registry) remain largely uncharacterized. Therefore, we propose a minimal measurement standard for the quantitative characterization of one of the most frequently used parts, promoters. This approach uses both mRNA and protein measurements to provide a tractable and universal analysis of relevant promoter characteristics. In an effort to elucidate promoter design principles, we have also designed and characterized new promoter and enhancer sequences. Our goal is to contribute to the advancement of fundamental synthetic biology by evaluating the performance of new and existing promoters and enhancers, which may serve as a model for describing other basic parts such as ribosome binding sites and transcriptional terminators.