Faculty Opinions recommendation of Multiplexed gene synthesis in emulsions for exploring protein functional landscapes.

Improving our ability to construct and functionally characterize DNA sequences would broadly accelerate progress in biology. Here, we introduce DropSynth, a scalable, low-cost method to build thousands of defined gene-length constructs in a pooled (multiplexed) manner. DropSynth uses a library of barcoded beads that pull down the oligonucleotides necessary for a gene’s assembly, which are then processed and assembled in water-in-oil emulsions. We use DropSynth to successfully build >7000 synthetic genes that encode phylogenetically-diverse homologs of two essential genes in E. coli. We tested the ability of phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase homologs to complement a knockout E. coli strain in multiplex, revealing core functional motifs and reasons underlying homolog incompatibility. DropSynth coupled with multiplexed functional assays allow us to rationally explore sequence-function relationships at unprecedented scale. One Sentence Summary: A gene synthesis method, DropSynth, allows for the synthesis and characterization of thousands of genes in a pooled format.

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