Resources

DNA recombination, Vectors system

Our vision of success is based on the application of the recombination phenomenon to engineer bacterial and yeast strains. Homologous and site-specific DNA recombination and enzymes facilitating them are the basis of Explogen’s approaches. The set of tools for cloning, assembling, and modifying large DNA fragments was developed by our team, significantly speeding up gene cloning and strain engineering processes. The improved vectors system can be easily modified for different bacteria species and applications. The dedicated vectors with reporter genes, recombination facilitating genes are available at Explogen and are used in synthetic biology and strain engineering projects. 

Antibiotics producers, test strains

We are offering a collection of antibiotics-producing strains, primarily but not exclusively, Actinobacteria species, pre-screened for certain activities. The collection is permanently fulfilled with new species isolated from diverse, often unique, sources. Explogen also possesses a panel of bacterial and fungal test-cultures that are used to screen for and verify the antibacterial and antifungal activities. Besides that, we are constructing whole-cell biological sensors that can be used in screening programs for specific bioactivities or particular groups of small molecules.

RiPPs gene clusters, other gene clusters

Explogen is building up a collection of natural products biosynthetic genes from different Actinobacteria. Such biosynthetic genes are typically grouped into clusters with an average size of around 40 kbp. Our ability to work with large DNA fragments, naturally, allows simple and fast cloning of regions of bacterial chromosome coding for these clusters. We started with ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) gene clusters as a highly promising group of biologically active compounds and expanding our collection to other types of natural products biosynthesis genes.

Current Projects:
Resources:

• >300 Actinobacteria species isolated, more in progress.
• 18 commonly used test-cultures.
• 3 compound-specific biosensors.