Rapid in vitro production of single-stranded DNA

Abstract

There is increasing demand for single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) of lengths >200 nucleotides (nt) in synthetic biology, biological imaging and bionanotechnology. Existing methods to produce high-purity long ssDNA face limitations in scalability, complexity of protocol steps and/or yield. We present a rapid, high-yielding and user-friendly method for in vitro production of high-purity ssDNA with lengths up to at least seven kilobases. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with a forward primer bearing a methanol-responsive polymer generates a tagged amplicon that enables selective precipitation of the modified strand under denaturing conditions. We demonstrate that ssDNA is recoverable in ∼40–50 min (time after PCR) with >70% yield with respect to the input PCR amplicon, or up to 70 pmol per 100 μl PCR reaction. We demonstrate that the recovered ssDNA can be used for CRISPR/Cas9 homology directed repair in human cells, DNA-origami folding and fluorescent in-situ hybridization.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 12, 2019
Source ID
10.1093/nar/gkz998

Entities

People

  • Amanda Hornick
  • Brian J Beliveau
  • Cory Smith
  • Dionis Minev
  • Elisha Krieg
  • Gabriel Filsinger
  • George M. Church
  • Hiroshi M. Sasaki
  • Jocelyn Y. Kishi
  • Khaled Said
  • Peng Yin
  • Richard Guerra
  • William M. Shih

Organizations

  • Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
  • Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
  • Harvard Medical School
  • Harvard University
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Sleep Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Uehara Memorial Foundation

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Molecular Genetics
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology