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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

A Universal Protocol for Large-scale gRNA Library Production from any DNA Source
Published on: December 6, 2017
Combining Oligo Pools and Golden Gate Cloning to Create Protein Variant Libraries or Guide RNA Libraries for CRISPR
Alicia Maciá Valero1, Rianne C Prins1, Thijs de Vroet1
1Molecular Microbiology, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Oligo pools are array-synthesized, user-defined mixtures of single-stranded oligonucleotides that can be used as a source of synthetic DNA for library cloning. While currently offering the most affordable source of synthetic DNA, oligo pools also come with limitations such as a maximum synthesis length (approximately 350 bases), a higher error rate compared to alternative synthesis methods, and the presence of truncated molecules in the pool due to incomplete synthesis. Here, we provide users with a comprehensive protocol that details how oligo pools can be used in combination with Golden Gate cloning to create user-defined protein mutant libraries, as well as single-guide RNA libraries for CRISPR applications. Our methods are optimized to work within the Yeast Toolkit Golden Gate scheme, but are in principle compatible with any other Golden Gate-based modular cloning toolkit and extendable to other restriction enzyme-based cloning methods beyond Golden Gate. Our methods yield high-quality, affordable, in-house variant libraries.
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