To help in the design of primers for both PCR and Gibson assembly the University of Cambridge iGEM2010 team have developed a website called Gibthon (http://www.gibthon.org/). A primer pair is needed to inverse PCR everything except mCherry. The second primer pair is required to amplify the super folder GFP gene. Both primers pairs require additional DNA sequences to act as homology drivers and to allow end-linking by Gibson assembly. [Note sequences should avoid the prefix and suffix motifs used for restriction enzyme assembly].

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Below is an example using the Gibthon tool to design a primer for Gibson assembly using the pSB3K3 BBa_I746916 Ape file. The following DNA sequence has a short region of homology the 3’ end of the super folder GFP gene and homology with the 5’ DNA sequence of pSB3K3 (with the terminator DNA sequences). Copy the DNA sequence:


5’-tactagagccaggcatcaaataaaacgaaaggctcagtcg-3’

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and paste it into the box for the right gene in Gibthon.
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The following DNA sequence has 3’ homology of the super folder GFP gene and the 3’ DNA sequence of pSB3K3 (with promoter and rbs DNA sequences). Copy the DNA sequence:

5’-ATCACGCATGGTATGGATGAACTGTACAAATGATGA-3’

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and paste it into the box for the right gene in Gibthon.
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Click the Results button.
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The right primer in the Gibthon window is one of the pair (the forward primer) that will amplify the plasmid backbone (with a 20 nucleotide 5’ overhang that has homology with the 3’ end of super folder GFP for Gibson assembly in green and 24 nucleotides homology to the plasmid backbone).


fwd backbone 5’-tgaactgtacaaatgatgaTACTAGAGCCAGGCATCAAATAAA-3’

The left primer is the reverse complement of the right primer and is used as the reverse primer too amplify the super folder GFP gene (with 20 nucleotide homology to the super folder GFP and a 24 nucleotide 5’ overhang)

5’-TTTATTTGATGCCTGGCTCTAGTAtcatcatttgtacagttca-3’

modified slightly to:
rev GFP: 5’-CCTGGCTCTAGTATCAtcatcatttgtacagttcatccatacc-3’

Repeat step 4 to design the second primer pair for PCR and Gibson assembly.

fwd GFP: 5’-TACTAGAGAAAGAGGAGAAATACTAGATGCGTAAAGG-3’

rev backbone: 5’-CATCTAGTATTTCTCCTCTTTCTCTAGTATGTGC-3’

The fwd and rev GFP primers and the fwd and rev plasmid backbone primers are paired for PCR. [Note the primer melting points need to be calculated for the DNA sequence that shares homology with the template DNA to work out the correct annealing temperature for PCR].