PCR-based synthesis of repetitive single-stranded DNA for applications to nanobiotechnology

Recent data show that assembly of repetitive-sequence, single-stranded DNA molecules (ssDNA) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) depend on the specific sequence repeat. Therefore, it is of practical interest to assess various methods for generating single-stranded DNA molecules that contain repetitive sequences. Existing automated synthesis procedures for generating long (>100 nt) ssDNA molecules generate ssDNA products of variable purity and yield. An alternative to automated synthesis is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which provides a powerful tool for the amplification of minute amounts of specific DNA sequences. Here we show that a modified asymmetric PCR method allows synthesis of long ssDNAs comprised of tandem repeats of the repetitive vertebrate telomeric sequence (TTAGGG)_n, and is also applicable to arbitrary (repetitive or nonrepetitive) DNA. Long, repetitive deoxynucleotides produced by automated synthesis are surprisingly heterogeneous with respect to both length and sequence. Benefits of the method described here are that long, repetitive ssDNA sequences are generated with high sequence fidelity and yield.