Tour of MixedDNA

Here we describe the major modules and components of the MixedDNA CAD Tool.

Key Concepts

First we need to define a few terms that underpin how MixedDNA works.

Items

DNA, Protein, Parts, Constructs, Plates, Tubes, there are a lot of “things” involved in genetic engineering. In Mixed, we call these things, “items”. Mixed will help you create, import, export, track, and transform them to create and build your genetic designs.

Mixed Sources

Sources are where all the "items" come from. A source could be a file you download to your computer like a FASTA or GenBank file, or it could be a publicly accessible repository such as SynbioHub or the Mixed Public Registry. DNA parts are critically important, but they are not the only items that Mixed Sources provide. Other examples of items in sources might include the contents of a freezer in your lab or the available quantity of a particular reagent.

Each source provides different types of items and operates under specific permissions—some are read-only, whereas others may be writable. Sources can also be private, accessible only to you or your organization, or public, available for everyone to use.

Workspace

In order to achieve your vision for an amazing modified organism you will probably require many items and sources. A mixed workspace allows you to pull in all these sources and items into a single place and save it as project that you can come back to whenever you want.

Constructs

Constructs are where the rubber hits the road in terms of genetic engineering. A construct is where you combine several genetic parts into new novel sequences. DNA Parts are pulled