[General approach to the engineering of synthetic DNA]

A useful and efficient approach to the synthesis of DNA duplexes of practically unlimited length has been developed. The proposed methodology is based on the use of temporary restriction sites for subcloning and assembling the segments of the desired DNA. It allows the utilization of chemically synthesized oligonucleotides of various length (from 10- to 100-mers) for the duplex construction. The application of this approach to the synthesis of a gene for the functionally active bacteriorhodopsin fragment is described.