Cloning sites/Overview

To adhere to the BioBrick standard for physical composition of genetic parts, plasmid backbones must include a BioBrick cloning site. The cloning site includes a BioBrick prefix sequence composed of an EcoRI, NotI, and XbaI restriction enzyme recognition site and a BioBrick suffix sequence composed of a SpeI, NotI, and PstI restriction enzyme recognition site.

In most BioBrick plasmid backbones, including those constructed from the BioBrick base vector, the BioBrick prefix and suffix sequences are not adjacent to one another. Instead, the BioBrick prefix and suffix flank what is a called a default plasmid insert or default insert for short. There are several different default inserts available in the Registry. See default plasmid inserts for more information.