All Outputs (10)

Synthetic yeast chromosome XI design provides a testbed for the study of extrachromosomal circular DNA dynamics (2023)
Journal Article
Blount, B. A., Lu, X., Driessen, M. R. M., Jovicevic, D., Sanchez, M. I., Ciurkot, K., …Ellis, T. (2023). Synthetic yeast chromosome XI design provides a testbed for the study of extrachromosomal circular DNA dynamics. Cell Genomics, 3(11), Article 100418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100418

We describe construction of the synthetic yeast chromosome XI (synXI) and reveal the effects of redesign at non-coding DNA elements. The 660-kb synthetic yeast genome project (Sc2.0) chromosome was assembled from synthesized DNA fragments before CRIS... Read More about Synthetic yeast chromosome XI design provides a testbed for the study of extrachromosomal circular DNA dynamics.

Design, construction, and functional characterization of a tRNA neochromosome in yeast (2023)
Journal Article
Schindler, D., Walker, R. S., Jiang, S., Brooks, A. N., Wang, Y., Müller, C. A., …Cai, Y. (2023). Design, construction, and functional characterization of a tRNA neochromosome in yeast. Cell, 186(24), 5237-5253.e22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.10.015

Here, we report the design, construction, and characterization of a tRNA neochromosome, a designer chromosome that functions as an additional, de novo counterpart to the native complement of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Intending to address one of the c... Read More about Design, construction, and functional characterization of a tRNA neochromosome in yeast.

Trimming the genomic fat: minimising and re-functionalising genomes using synthetic biology (2023)
Journal Article
Xu, X., Meier, F., Blount, B. A., Pretorius, I. S., Ellis, T., Paulsen, I. T., & Williams, T. C. (2023). Trimming the genomic fat: minimising and re-functionalising genomes using synthetic biology. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 1984. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37748-7

Naturally evolved organisms typically have large genomes that enable their survival and growth under various conditions. However, the complexity of genomes often precludes our complete understanding of them, and limits the success of biotechnological... Read More about Trimming the genomic fat: minimising and re-functionalising genomes using synthetic biology.

Synthetic bacterial genome upgraded for viral defence and biocontainment (2023)
Journal Article
Blount, B. A. (2023). Synthetic bacterial genome upgraded for viral defence and biocontainment. Nature, 615(7953), 592-594. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00702-0

Construction of an Escherichia coli genome with fewer codons sets records (2019)
Journal Article
Blount, B. A., & Ellis, T. (2019). Construction of an Escherichia coli genome with fewer codons sets records. Nature, 569(7757), 492-494. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01584-x

© 2019, Nature. The biggest synthetic genome so far has been made, with a smaller set of amino-acid-encoding codons than usual — raising the prospect of encoding proteins that contain unnatural amino-acid residues.

The Synthetic Genome Summer Course (2018)
Journal Article
Blount, B., & Ellis, T. (2018). The Synthetic Genome Summer Course. Synthetic Biology, 3(1), Article ysy020. https://doi.org/10.1093/synbio/ysy020

Sensing the Right Time to Be Productive (2016)
Journal Article
Ceroni, F., Blount, B. A., & Ellis, T. (2016). Sensing the Right Time to Be Productive. Cell Systems, 3(2), 116-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2016.08.004

Engineered E. coli can be made to autonomously switch from growth to production by a modular two-gate system that reduces the burden of biosynthesis.

Total synthesis of a eukaryotic chromosome: Redesigning and SCRaMbLE-ing yeast (2014)
Journal Article
Jovicevic, D., Blount, B. A., & Ellis, T. (2014). Total synthesis of a eukaryotic chromosome: Redesigning and SCRaMbLE-ing yeast. BioEssays, 36(9), 855-860. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201400086

A team of US researchers recently reported the design, assembly and in vivo functionality of a synthetic chromosome III (SynIII) for the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The synthetic chromosome was assembled bottom-up from DNA oligomers by teams of s... Read More about Total synthesis of a eukaryotic chromosome: Redesigning and SCRaMbLE-ing yeast.

Rational diversification of a promoter providing fine-tuned expression and orthogonal regulation for synthetic biology (2012)
Journal Article
Blount, B. A., Weenink, T., Vasylechko, S., & Ellis, T. (2012). Rational diversification of a promoter providing fine-tuned expression and orthogonal regulation for synthetic biology. PLoS ONE, 7(3), Article e33279. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033279

Yeast is an ideal organism for the development and application of synthetic biology, yet there remain relatively few well-characterised biological parts suitable for precise engineering of this chassis. In order to address this current need, we prese... Read More about Rational diversification of a promoter providing fine-tuned expression and orthogonal regulation for synthetic biology.

Construction of synthetic regulatory networks in yeast (2012)
Journal Article
Blount, B. A., Weenink, T., & Ellis, T. (2012). Construction of synthetic regulatory networks in yeast. FEBS Letters, 586(15), 2112-2121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2012.01.053

Yeast species such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been exploited by humans for millennia and so it is therefore unsurprising that they are attractive cells to re-engineer for industrial use. Despite many beneficial traits yeast has for synthetic bi... Read More about Construction of synthetic regulatory networks in yeast.