Improvement of rolling circle amplification efficiency with gold nanoparticles

Rolling circle amplification of plasmid has become increasingly popular as a technique to clone and amplify DNA sequences. We have found that 15 μg mL−1 gold nanoparticles could increase the rolling circle amplification yield and shorten the reaction time from 12 to 8 hours. Although the mutation frequencies were calculated as 2.43‰, the rolling circle amplification fidelity was sufficient for DNA manipulation. Furthermore, gold nanoparticles were found to bind specifically to rolling circle amplification products.