Scientists in Japan have developed a new way to cut and reassemble DNA using silver nanoparticles, a method they say can make DNA assembly far more efficient than traditional approaches. The work was published in Nucleic Acids Research, according to ScienceDaily.
In genetic engineering, researchers often rely on restriction enzymes and DNA ligase to cut DNA at specific points and join the pieces back together. But standard restriction enzymes can only recognize certain DNA sequences and often produce short sticky ends, which can make assembly less effective.
The team, led by Professor Hiroshi Abe and Assistant Professor Masahito Inagaki at Nagoya University with Professor Natsuhisa Oka at Gifu University, explored whether chemical reactions could replace restriction enzymes for targeted DNA cutting. After testing silver ions, they turned to silver nanoparticles, which made the process easier to manage and improved DNA recovery.
According to the researchers, the nanoparticle method produced assembly efficiencies two to five times higher than conventional methods. They also successfully used the technique to assemble a DNA fragment carrying green fluorescent protein and introduced it into human HeLa cells, where it was expressed correctly.
The researchers now want to see whether the method can join multiple DNA fragments at once, which they say would be an important step toward building larger genome-scale DNA.
