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Updated: Jan 3, 2026

Genetic Modification of Cyanobacteria by Conjugation Using the CyanoGate Modular Cloning Toolkit
Published on: October 31, 2019
Genetic Modification of Cyanobacteria by Conjugation Using the CyanoGate Modular Cloning Toolkit
Grant A R Gale1, Alejandra A Schiavon Osorio2, Anton Puzorjov2
1Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh; Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, University of Edinburgh; Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
Abstract:
Cyanobacteria are a diverse group of prokaryotic photosynthetic organisms that can be genetically modified for the renewable production of useful industrial commodities. Recent advances in synthetic biology have led to development of several cloning toolkits such as CyanoGate, a standardized modular cloning system for building plasmid vectors for subsequent transformation or conjugal transfer into cyanobacteria. Here we outline a detailed method for assembling a self-replicating vector (e.g., carrying a fluorescent marker expression cassette) and conjugal transfer of the vector into the cyanobacterial strains Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 or Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973. In addition, we outline how to characterize the performance of a genetic part (e.g., a promoter) using a plate reader or flow cytometry.
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