Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Quantitative profiling of millions of nucleotides reveals sequence-encoded interactions that govern plasmid propagation
doi: 10.64898/2025.12.15.694402
Figure Lengend Snippet: A) Plasmids support cloning, library propagation, and gene expression, but unintended interactions with host transcriptional and replication machinery can drive recombination, plasmid instability, low plasmid DNA (pDNA) yields, and reduced expression. B) Overview of the pooled plasmid fitness assay. A diverse library of mammalian expression plasmid parts is assembled using Golden Gate cloning and transformed into E. coli . The pooled culture is grown over time, and changes in plasmid abundance are measured via long read nanopore sequencing and alignment. Log fold change (LFC) in relative plasmid abundance is used as a fitness metric and ranked across the library. Machine learning models predict sequence-dependent fitness effects. C) A set of Mammalian Toolkit (MTK) plasmids was transformed into E. coli DH5α, DH10B, and Stbl3 and the pooled assay performed in triplicate. Violin plots show plasmid fitness with three distinct categories of poor plasmid propagation including reduced fitness (light grey), low fitness (grey) and severe plasmid loss. This was compared to plasmid size (left) and GC content (right).
Article Snippet: Single-part plasmid libraries were assembled using the Mammalian Tool Kit (MTK) modular cloning framework, sourced from Addgene. ( ) Individual regulatory elements (promoters, UTRs, coding sequences, localization tags, and polyadenylation sequences) were cloned into a common bacterial backbone containing a chloramphenicol resistance marker and a pMB1-derived origin of replication.
Techniques: Cloning, Gene Expression, Plasmid Preparation, Expressing, Transformation Assay, Nanopore Sequencing, Sequencing