Human in the Loop Automated Workflow for Gene Deletion in Arabidopsis Cell Culture

Standardized methods and abstraction of construction from design are two of the defining approaches of Synthetic Biology. We present progress on the use of Aquarium, open-source Lab OS software developed by the Klavins lab, for plant synthetic biology workflows. Specifically deletion of genes from Arabidopsis cell culture using CRISPR-Cas9, and transcriptional modifications using dCas9 and aptamer based recruitment of transcriptional effector modules.

This work was largely conducted by a team of undergraduate researchers directed by the presenting author. We therefore also present Aquarium as a tool to meaningfully engage less-experienced researchers in bioengineering research.