Introduction to Genome Synthesis and Assembly

From the first synthetic genome of poliovirus to the whole-genome synthesis and assembly completed by Gibson et al. in 2010, the synthesis capacity has expanded from small primer production to de novo synthesis of genes with any length and complexity. With the rapid improvement of DNA synthesis techniques, genome engineering has been greatly developed at an affordable price. Nowadays, genome synthesis and assembly have become highly commercialized.

Rapid technological advances have enabled the application of DNA synthesis and assembly from the field of genetics to synthetic biology. The next-generation high-throughput sequencing and genome engineering technology will bring further breakthroughs in the efficient editing and construction of the microbial, plant, and animal genomes. The bottom-up assembly process of synthetic genomics can help to improve the understanding of genetic blueprint, which will accelerate the research and development of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and disease therapies. These advances also mark the beginning of a new era of synthetic genomics.

Figure 1. Flowchart for the de novo synthesis and assembly of bacteriophage ΦX174, M. genitalium, and S. cerevisiae genomes using oligonucleotides as starting materials. (Wang L, et al., 2018)