Build-a-BUG 1

Learn the fundamentals of synthetic biology in eukaryotes! We will use BioBrick standard biological parts to engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a classic model organism and the yeast commonly used in winemaking, baking, and brewing. This yeast can be induced to form spores, which are daughter cells with half the number of chromosomes. Similar to the sperm and egg cells of male and female animals, these spores can be one of two mating types: a or α. An a spore can mate with an α spore to… Show more form a new yeast cell. The goal will be to build a yeast that when sporulated will yield mating type α spores that fluoresce red. This project has potential real-world biotechnology applications (e.g. streamlining the identification of spores for downstream mating experiments). This is the first Build-A-BUG workshop in a series of five on yeast. You will be introduced to basic lab techniques, including pipetting and centrifugation, and start your own mating type detector project by doing minipreps (DNA isolation), restriction digests (cutting DNA), and agarose gel electrophoresis (visualizing DNA). Other Build-A-BUG workshops in this series will cover other techniques. The five sessions are designed to give a good survey of synthetic biology techniques while doing an interesting project.  While we encourage you to take all five sessions, each session can stand on its own. You do not need to commit to all five sessions to enjoy the experience. There are no prerequisites, except you must be over 18 years of age (still working on legal stuff to let younger people participate in this activity)

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