R&D: Fully In Vitro Iterative Construction of 24kb-long Artificial DNA Sequence to Store Digital Information

BioTechniques has published an article written by Julien Leblanc, Olivier Boulle, University Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, France, Emeline Roux, Institut NuMeCan, INRAE, INSERM, University Rennes, France, Jacques Nicolas, University Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, France, Dominique Lavenier, CNRS-IRISA, Inria, University Rennes, Rennes, France, and Yann Audic, CNRS, University Rennes, Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes (IGDR) UMR 6290, Rennes, France.

Abstract: “In the absence of a DNA template, the ab initio production of long double-stranded DNA molecules of predefined sequences is particularly challenging. The DNA synthesis step remains a bottleneck for many applications such as functional assessment of ancestral genes, analysis of alternative splicing or DNA-based data storage. In this report we propose a fully in vitro protocol to generate very long double-stranded DNA molecules starting from commercially available short DNA blocks in less than 3 days using Golden Gate assembly. This innovative application allowed us to streamline the process to produce a 24kb-long DNA molecule storing part of the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789’. The DNA molecule produced can be readily cloned into a suitable host/vector system for amplification and selection.“