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Comment by pcrh

9 hours ago

I briefly scanned the paper. The above summary is garbage.

For a biologist, a summary might be like this: pcr fragments are generated with short reverse complementary sequences added to the end of one fragment that match that at the begining of the next to-be-joined fragment.

These will anneal to create a cross-shaped DNA molecule. The short arms of the cross being the complementary sequences. Like so:

  ======∥=====

The short arms can then be processed-off to leave behind the now-longer fragment. The process can be repeated using different reverse complementary sequences between each fragment, the "page numbers" referred to.

So do the complementary sequences naturally bind to their neighbors? So you just mix the “pages” in a soup for a while until they all find their friends. And then the custom enzyme (or what is it) just slices off the three way junctions?

Really clever.

  • That's right.

    It's one of those elegant solutions that just seem so obvious once they're presented. But this lot did it first.