The Bee Microbiome Toolkit (BTK) is a Golden-Gate compatible toolkit of genetic parts designed for working with newly isolated, non-model bacteria. Like in the yeast toolkit, type IIS enzymatic assembly of parts with defined overhangs create complete vectors. Plasmid elements— promoters, coding sequences, antibiotic resistance genes— can be independently replaced. The toolkit includes broad-host-range promoters and a broad-host-range plasmid backbone that replicates in diverse Gram-negative and Gram-positive hosts. BTK plasmids possess an origin of transfer (oriT) and can be delivered by conjugation or electroporation. Here we describe example protocols and use cases of the BTK. BTK parts will soon be available from Addgene. If you use the BTK parts or these protocols in your work, please cite: 1. Leonard, S. P. et al. Genetic Engineering of Bee Gut Microbiome Bacteria with a Toolkit for Modular Assembly of Broad-Host-Range Plasmids. ACS Synth. Biol. acssynbio.7b00399 (2018). doi:10.1021/acssynbio.7b00399.
Detailed description of BTK components and Parts List