Help:Standards

Standards

What are standards

The "standard" in standard biological parts will define how part samples will be assembled together by the engineer. The goal of most engineers is to simplify and standardize the process of creation. By simplifying and standardizing biology, the engineer can go on to use parts to create their biological systems without spending time on researching each individual component or worrying about how to assemble them. A standard, like the BioBrick standard, ensures compatibility between parts, allowing their samples to be assembled together creating new longer and more complex parts, while still maintaining the structural elements of the standard. This idempotent assembly means that any newly composed part will adhere to its standard without need for manipulation, and can be used in future assemblies without issue.

How does a standard work

A standard defines assembly through the use of a prefix and suffix, which flank the beginning and end of a part sample, respectively. The prefix and suffix contain restriction sites, which when used with specific restriction enzymes (cutting) and DNA ligase (connecting), allow part samples to be assembled together forming a new part. This new part sample will maintain the same prefix and suffix as its "parents."

A part is compatible with a prefix and suffix as long as it meets the requirements defined by a standard. This means that the part will not have any restriction sites that also appear in the prefix and suffix. If there are "illegal" restriction sites in a part this would interfere in its assembly.

Standards in relation too...

Part - A part is compatible with a standard, as long as its sequence meets the requirements of the standard; this means that the part does not have any restriction sites that would interfere with the assembly. It is important to remember that a part does not include the prefix and suffix as defined by a standard.
Assembly is combining two part samples together in series to form a new composite part. Traditional assembly is done through the use of restriction sites (cutting and ligating) as defined by the standard. Assembly is facilitated through standards.
Plasmid Backbones - A plasmid backbone propagates a sample of a part, located inbetween the prefix and suffix of the plasmid backbone. Therefore the plasmid backbone will define the standard and assembly for the part it maintains.

Example

You'll notice that many parts on the Registry are BioBrick RFC[10] compatible: BBa_R0051 is a part that is compatible with all five Registry supported standards.
If you were to find a physical location for this part (using the Get This Part page) you'll see that all available samples are in the pSB1A2 plasmid backbone.
The pSB1A2 plasmid backbone has a prefix and suffix as defined by the BioBrick RFC[10] standard. The available samples of BBa_R0051 are flanked by this prefix and suffix.
In order to assemble an available sample of BBa_R0051 to a different part you will need to make sure that a sample of that additional part is on a plasmid backbone that also belongs to the BioBrick RFC[10] standard.

Registry Supported Standards

The Registry currently supports the following standards, and is able to A part is compatible with a standard as long as it meets its requirements, this usually means it does not have any internal restriction sites that would

The BioBrick™ Standard | RFC [10]

BioBricks™ is a standard for interchangable parts, developed with a view to building biological systems in living cells. The part is flanked by a standard BioBrick™ prefix (P) and suffix (S).

BioBrick™ BB-2 | RFC [12]

Chris Anderson Berkeley BamBgl | [RFC [21]

Silver/FusionBricks | RFC [23]

Freiburg Fusion Protein | RFC [25]