This blog focuses on contemporary issues in all the fields of Biotechnology. A place for aggregation of information about the developments in the field of life sciences.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Enzymatic Assembly of DNA in a Test Tube

Daniel Gibson and his colleagues at the J.Craig Venter Institute, USA have developed a method for assembling DNA molecules up to several hundred kilo-bases in  a test tube. Their study is published in Nature Methods 6, 343 - 345 (2009). According to the method described by them, DNA molecules are assembled in a isothermal, single-reaction process with the concerted action of a 5' -  exonuclease, a DNA polymerase and a DNA ligase. A single-step process makes it faster and fully controllable. This will further allow in vitro assembly of genes, entire genetic pathways, or even small genomes from natural or synthetic DNA.

 

 

P.S. : Daniel Gibson's group previously assembled the entire genome (583 kilo-base-pair) of Mycoplasma genitalium using synthetic DNA. The final steps of DNA assembling could be accomplished in a yeast cell and it is difficult as the foreign DNA maybe toxic to the yeast.  

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