skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Digital droplet multiple displacement amplification (ddMDA) for whole genome sequencing of limited DNA samples

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) is a widely used technique for amplification of DNA from samples containing limited amounts of DNA (e.g., uncultivable microbes or clinical samples) before whole genome sequencing. In spite of its advantages of high yield and fidelity, it suffers from high amplification bias and non-specific amplification when amplifying sub-nanogram of template DNA. We present a microfluidic digital droplet MDA (ddMDA) technique where partitioning of the template DNA into thousands of sub-nanoliter droplets, each containing a small number of DNA fragments, greatly reduces the competition among DNA fragments for primers and polymerase thereby greatly reducing amplification bias. As a consequence, the ddMDA approach enabled a more uniform coverage of amplification over the entire length of the genome, with significantly lower bias and non-specific amplification than conventional MDA. For a sample containing 0.1 pg/μL of E. coli DNA (equivalent of ~3/1000 of an E. coli genome per droplet), ddMDA achieves a 65-fold increase in coverage in de novo assembly, and more than 20-fold increase in specificity (percentage of reads mapping to E. coli) compared to the conventional tube MDA. ddMDA offers a powerful method useful for many applications including medical diagnostics, forensics, and environmental microbiology.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
R01 DE020891; AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1266216
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1303157
Report Number(s):
SAND2016-4583J
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Vol. 11, Issue 5; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (40)

TempliPhi, ⌽29 DNA Polymerase Based Rolling Circle Amplification of Templates for DNA Sequencing journal June 2002
QUAST: quality assessment tool for genome assemblies journal February 2013
One Bacterial Cell, One Complete Genome journal April 2010
Nearly finished genomes produced using gel microdroplet culturing reveal substantial intraspecies genomic diversity within the human microbiome journal March 2013
Digital MDA for enumeration of total nucleic acid contamination journal November 2010
Enhanced sequencing coverage with digital droplet multiple displacement amplification journal December 2015
Massively parallel polymerase cloning and genome sequencing of single cells using nanoliter microwells journal November 2013
Genome-Wide Detection of Single-Nucleotide and Copy-Number Variations of a Single Human Cell journal December 2012
Caught in the middle with multiple displacement amplification: the myth of pooling for avoiding multiple displacement amplification bias in a metagenome journal January 2014
Multiple Mutation Analyses in Single Tumor Cells with Improved Whole Genome Amplification journal January 1999
Trimmomatic: a flexible trimmer for Illumina sequence data journal April 2014
Versatile on-demand droplet generation for controlled encapsulation journal May 2014
Miniaturized isothermal nucleic acid amplification, a review journal January 2011
BLAST Ring Image Generator (BRIG): simple prokaryote genome comparisons journal August 2011
Mutation detection and single-molecule counting using isothermal rolling-circleamplification journal July 1998
Genome-wide Single-Cell Analysis of Recombination Activity and De Novo Mutation Rates in Human Sperm journal July 2012
Environmental Whole-Genome Amplification To Access Microbial Populations in Contaminated Sediments journal May 2006
Whole Genome Analysis of Genetic Alterations in Small DNA Samples Using Hyperbranched Strand Displacement Amplification and Array-CGH journal February 2003
Dissecting biological "dark matter" with single-cell genetic analysis of rare and uncultivated TM7 microbes from the human mouth journal July 2007
Single cell genome sequencing journal June 2012
Building droplet-based microfluidic systems for biological analysis journal July 2012
Nanoliter Reactors Improve Multiple Displacement Amplification of Genomes from Single Cells journal January 2007
Pressure stabilizer for reproducible picoinjection in droplet microfluidic systems journal January 2014
Genome coverage and sequence fidelity of  29 polymerase-based multiple strand displacement whole genome amplification journal May 2004
Unbiased Whole-Genome Amplification Directly From Clinical Samples journal April 2003
CXCR4 signaling directs Igk recombination and the molecular mechanisms of late B lymphopoiesis journal September 2019
Decontamination of MDA Reagents for Single Cell Whole Genome Amplification journal October 2011
Sequencing genomes from single cells by polymerase cloning journal May 2006
An Efficient Multistrategy DNA Decontamination Procedure of PCR Reagents for Hypersensitive PCR Applications journal September 2010
SPAdes: A New Genome Assembly Algorithm and Its Applications to Single-Cell Sequencing journal May 2012
Rapid Amplification of Plasmid and Phage DNA Using Phi29 DNA Polymerase and Multiply-Primed Rolling Circle Amplification journal June 2001
A Quantitative Comparison of Single-Cell Whole Genome Amplification Methods journal August 2014
Toward genome-wide SNP genotyping journal June 2005
Fast gapped-read alignment with Bowtie 2 journal March 2012
BEDTools: a flexible suite of utilities for comparing genomic features journal January 2010
Whole Genome Amplification and De novo Assembly of Single Bacterial Cells journal September 2009
Fidelity of phi 29 DNA polymerase. Comparison between protein-primed initiation and DNA polymerization. journal February 1993
Cell-free cloning using φ29 DNA polymerase journal November 2005
Improved Multiple Displacement Amplification (iMDA) and Ultraclean Reagents journal January 2014
Genomic DNA Amplification from a Single Bacterium journal June 2005

Cited By (14)

Obtaining Genome Sequences of Mutualistic Bacteria in Single Microcystis Colonies journal October 2019
Measurement of copy number variation in single cancer cells using rapid-emulsification digital droplet MDA journal June 2017
Precision oncology using a limited number of cells: optimization of whole genome amplification products for sequencing applications journal July 2017
Recent Advances in Droplet-based Microfluidic Technologies for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal June 2019
Massively parallel whole genome amplification for single-cell sequencing using droplet microfluidics journal July 2017
Droplet microfluidics for high-sensitivity and high-throughput detection and screening of disease biomarkers
  • Kaushik, Aniruddha M.; Hsieh, Kuangwen; Wang, Tza-Huei
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 10, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/wnan.1522
journal May 2018
The Development of an Effective Bacterial Single-Cell Lysis Method Suitable for Whole Genome Amplification in Microfluidic Platforms journal July 2018
Single‐Cell Analysis Using Droplet Microfluidics journal November 2019
The Development of an Effective Bacterial Single-Cell Lysis Method Suitable for Whole Genome Amplification in Microfluidic Platforms text January 2018
The study of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles via microfluidically generated droplets journal April 2018
Obtaining high-quality draft genomes from uncultured microbes by cleaning and co-assembly of single-cell amplified genomes journal February 2018
Evaluation of bias induced by viral enrichment and random amplification protocols in metagenomic surveys of saliva DNA viruses journal June 2018
The study of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles via microfluidically generated droplets text January 2018
Building a lineage from single cells: genetic techniques for cell lineage tracking journal January 2017