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  • C40B40/04—Libraries containing only organic compounds
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  • C40B60/14—Apparatus specially adapted for use in combinatorial chemistry or with libraries for creating libraries

Definitions

• This invention relates in general to methods and apparatus for nucleic acid analysis, and, in particular, to methods and apparati for nucleic acid analysis.
• the traditional method of determining a sequence of nucleotides is performed by preparing a mixture of randomly-terminated, differentially labelled nucleic acid fragments by degradation at specific nucleotides, or by dideoxy chain termination of replicating strands. Resulting nucleic acid fragments in the range of 1 to 500 bp are then separated on a gel to produce a ladder of bands wherein the adjacent samples differ in length by one nucleotide.
• the array-based approach of SBH does not require single base resolution in separation, degradation, synthesis or imaging of a nucleic acid molecule.
• oligonucleotides Using mismatch discriminative hybridization of short oligonucleotides K bases in length, lists of constituent K-mer oligonucleotides may be determined for target nucleic acid. Sequence for the target nucleic acid may be assembled by uniquely overlapping scored oligonucleotides.
• SBH Format 1 nucleic acid samples are arrayed, and labeled probes are hybridized with the samples. Replica membranes with the same sets of sample nucleic acids may be used for parallel scoring of several probes and/or probes may be multiplexed. Nucleic acid samples may be arrayed and hybridized on nylon membranes or other suitable supports. Each membrane array may be reused many times. Format 1 is especially efficient for batch processing large numbers of samples.
• SBH Format 2 probes are arrayed at locations on a substrate which correspond to their respective sequences, and a labelled nucleic acid sample fragment is hybridized to the arrayed probes.
• sequence information about a fragment may be determined in a simultaneous hybridization reaction with all of the arrayed probes.
• the same oligonucleotide array may be reused.
• the arrays may be produced by spotting or by in situ synthesis of probes.
• a set may be in the form of arrays of probes with known positions, and another, labelled set may be stored in multiwell plates.
• target nucleic acid need not be labelled.
• Target nucleic acid and one or more labelled probes are added to the arrayed sets of probes. If one attached probe and one labelled probe both hybridize contiguously on the target nucleic acid, they are covalently ligated, producing a detected sequence equal to the sum of the length of the ligated probes.
• the process allows for sequencing long nucleic acid fragments, e.g. a complete bacterial genome, without nucleic acid subcloning in smaller pieces.
• SBH is applied to the efficient identification and sequencing of one or more nucleic acid samples.
• the procedure has many applications in nucleic acid diagnostics, forensics, and gene mapping. It also may be used to identify mutations responsible for genetic disorders and other traits, to assess biodiversity and to produce many other types of data dependent on nucleic acid sequence.
• the present invention provides a method for detecting a target nucleic acid species including the steps of providing an array of probes affixed to a substrate and a plurality of labeled probes wherein each labeled probe is selected to have a first nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to a first portion of a target nucleic acid and wherein the nucleic acid sequence of at least one probe affixed to the substrate is complementary to a second portion of the nucleic acid sequence of the target, the second portion being adjacent to the first portion; applying a target nucleic acid to the array under suitable conditions for hybridization of probe sequences to complementary sequences; introducing a labeled probe to the array; hybridizing a probe affixed to the substrate to the target nucleic acid; hybridizing the labeled probe to the target nucleic acid: affixing the labeled probe to an adjacently hybridized probe in the array; and detecting the labeled probe affixed to the probe in the array.
• the array of probes affixed to the substrate comprises a universal set of probes.
• at least two of the probes affixed to the substrate define overlapping sequences of the target nucleic acid sequence and more preferably at least two of the labelled probes define overlapping sequences of the target nucleic acid sequences.
• a method for detecting a target nucleic acid of known sequence comprising the steps of: contacting a nucleic acid sample with a set of immobilized oligonucleotide probes attached to a solid substrate under hybridizing conditions wherein the immobilized probes are capable of specific hybridization with different portions of said target nucleic acid sequence; contacting the target nucleic acid with a set of labelled oligonucleotide probes in solution under hybridizing conditions wherein the labeled probes are capable of specific hybridization with different portions of said target nucleic acid sequence adjacent to the immobilized probes; covalently joining the immobilized probes to labelled probes that are immediately adjacent to the immobilized probe on the target sequence (e.g..).
• the invention also provides a method of determining expression of a member of a set of partially or completely sequenced genes in a cell type, a tissue or a tissue mixture comprising the steps of: defining pairs of fixed and labeled probes specific for the sequenced gene: hybridizing unlabeled nucleic acid sample and corresponding labeled probes to one or more arrays of fixed probes: forming covalent bonds between adjacent hybridized labeled and fixed probes; removing unligated probes; and determining the presence of the sequenced gene by detection of labeled probes bound to prespecified locations in the array.
• the target nucleic acid will identify the presence of an infectious agent.
• the present invention provides for an array of oligonucleotide probes comprising a nylon membrane; a plurality of subarrays of oligonucleotide probes on the nylon membrane, the subarrays comprising a plurality of individual spots wherein each spot is comprised of a plurality of oligonucleotide probes of the same sequence: and a plurality of hydrophobic barriers located between the subarrays on the nylon membrane, whereby the plurality of hyydrophobic barriers prevents cross contamination between adjacent subarrays.
• the present invention provides a method for sequencing a repetitive sequence, having a first end and a second end, in a target nucleic acid comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of spacer oligonucleotides of varying lengths wherein the spacer oligonucleotides comprise the repetitive sequence; (b) providing a first oligonucleotide that is known to be adjacent to the first end of the repetitive sequence; (c) providing a plurality of second oligonucleotides one of which is adjacent to the second end of the repetitive sequence, wherein the plurality of second oligonucleotides is labeled; (d) hybridizing the first and the plurality of second oligonucleotides, and one of the plurality of spacer oligonucleotides to the target nucleic acid ; (e) ligating the hybridized oligonucleotides; (f) separating ligated oligonucleotides from unligated oligon
• the present invention provides a method for sequencing a branch point sequence, having a first end and a second end, in a target nucleic acid comprising the steps of: (a) providing a first oligonucleotide that is complementary to a first portion of the branch point sequence wherein the first oligonucleotide extends from the first end of the branch point sequence by at least one nucleotide; (b) providing a plurality of second oligonucleotides that are labeled, and are complementary to a second portion of the branch point sequence wherein the plurality of second oligonucleotides extend from the second end of the branch point sequence by at least one nucleotide, and wherein the portion of the second oligonucleotides that extend from the second end of the branch point sequence comprise sequences that are complementary to a plurality of sequences that arise from the branch point sequence; (c) hybridizing the first oligonucleotide, and one of the plurality of second oligonucleo
• the present invention provides a method for confirming a sequence by using probes that are predicted to be negative for the target nucleic acid.
• the sequence of a target is then confirmed by hybridizing the target nucleic acid to the "negative" probes to confirm that these probes do not form perfect matches with the target nucleic acid.
• the present invention provides a method for analyzing a nucleic acid using oligonucleotide probes that are complexed with different labels so that the probes may be multiplexed in a hybridization reaction without a loss of sequence information (i.e., different probes have different labels so that hybridization of the different probes to the target can be distinguished).
• the labels are radioisotopes, or floursecent molecules, or enzymes, or electrophore mass labels.
• the differently labeled oligonucleotides probes are used in format III SBH, and multiple probes (more than two, with one probe being the immobilized probe) are ligated together.
• the present invention provides a method for detecting the presence of a target nucleic acid having a known sequence when the target is present in very small amounts compared to homologous nucleic acids in a sample.
• the target nucleic acid is an allele present at very low frequency in a sample that has nucleic acids from a large number of sources.
• the target nucleic acid has a mutated sequence, and is present at very low frequency within a sample of nucleic acids.
• the present invention provides a method for confirming the sequence of a target nucleic acid by using single pass gel sequencing.
• Primers for single pass gel sequencing are derived from the sequence obtained by SBH, and these primers are used in standard Sanger sequencing reactions to provide gel sequence information for the target nucleic acid.
• the sequence obtained by single pass gel sequencing is then compared to the SBH derived sequence to confirm the sequence.
• the present invention provides a method for solving branch points by using single pass gel sequencing. Primers for the single pass gel sequencing reactions are identified from the ends of the Sfs obtained after a first round of SBH sequencing, and these primers are used in standard Sanger-sequencing reactions to provide gel sequencing information through the branch points of the Sfs.
• the present invention provides for a method of preparing a sample containing target nucleic acids by PCR, without purifying the PCR products prior to the SBH reactions.
• Format I SBH crude PCR products are applied to a substrate without prior purification, and the substrate may be washed prior to introduction of the labeled probes.
• the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for analyzing a target nucleic acid.
• the apparatus comprises two arrays of nucleic acids that are mixed together at the desired time.
• the nucleic acids in one of the arrays are labeled.
• a material is disposed between the two arrays and this material prevents the mixing of nucleic acids in the arrays. When this material is removed, or rendered permeable, the nucleic acids in the two arrays are mixed together.
• the nucleic acids in one array are target nucleic acids and the nucleic acids in the od er are oligonucleotide probes.
• nucleic acids in both arrays are oligonucleotide probes. In another preferred embodiment, the nucleic acids in one array are oligonucleotide probes and target nucleic acids, and nucleic acids in the other array are oligonucleotide probes. In another preferred embodiment, the nucleic acids in both arrays are oligonucleotide probes and target nucleic acids.
• One method of the present invention using the apparatus described above comprises the steps of providing an array of nucleic acids fixed to a substrate, providing a second array of nucleic acids, providing conditions that allow the nucleic acids in the second array to come into contact with the nucleic acids of the fixed array wherein one of the arrays of nucleic acids are target nucleic acids and the other array is oligonucleotide probes, and analyzing the hybridization results.
• the fixed array is target nucleic acid and the second array is labeled oligonucleotide probes.
• there is a material disposed between the two arrays that prevents mixing of the nucleic acids until the material is removed or rendered permeable to the nucleic acids.
• a second method of the present invention using the apparatus described above comprises the steps of providing two arrays of nucleic acid probes, providing conditions that allow the two arrays of probes to come into contact with each other and a target nucleic acid, ligating together probes that are adjacent on the target nucleic acid, and analyzing the results.
• the probes in one array are fixed and the probes in the other array are labeled.
• the present invention provides substrates on which arrays of oligonucleotide probes are fixed, wherein each probe is separated from its neighboring probes by a physical barrier that is resistant to the flow of the sample solution.
• the physical barrier is made of a hydrophobic material.
• the present invention provides a method for making the arrays of oligonucleotide probes that are separated by physical barriers.
• a grid is applied to the substrate using an ink-jet head that applies a material which reduces the reaction volume of the array.
• the present invention provides substrates on which oligonucleotides are fixed to form a three-dimensional array.
• the three-dimensional array combines high resolution for reading probe results (each level has a relatively low density of probes per cm 2 ), with high information content in three dimensional space (multiple levels or probes).
• the present invention provides a substrate to which oligonucleotide probes are fixed, wherein the oligonucleotide probes have spacers, and wherein the spacers increase the distance between the substrate and the informational portion of the oligonucleotide probe (e.g. , the portion of the oligonucleotide probe which binds to the target and gives sequence information).
• the spacer comprises ribose sugars and phosphates, wherein the phosphates covalently bind the ribose sugars into a polymer by forming esters with the ribose sugars through their 5' and 3' hydroxyl groups.
• the present invention provides a method for clustering cDNA clones into groups of similar or identical sequences, so that single representative clones may be selected from each group for sequencing.
• the method for clustering is used in the sequencing of a plurality of clones, comprising the steps of: interrogating each clone with a plurality of oligonucleotide probes; determining which probes bind to each clone and the signal intensity for eac probe: clustering clones into a plurality of groups by identifying clones that bind to similar probes with similar intensities; and sequencing at least one clone from each group.
• the plurality of probes comprises from about 50 to about 500 different probes.
• the plurality of probe comprises about 300 different probes.
• the plurality of clones are a plurality of cDNA clones.
• the invention relates to oligonucleotide probes complexed (covalent or noncovalent) to discrete particles wherein the particles can be grouped into a plurality of sets based on a physical property.
• a different probe is attached to the discrete particles of each set, and the identity of the probe is determined by identifying the physical property of the discrete particles.
• the probe is identified on the basis of a physical property of the probe.
• the physical property includes any that can be used to differentiate the discrete panicles, and includes, for example, size, flourescence, radioactivity, electromagnetic charge, or absorbance, or label(s) may be attached to the particle such as a dye, a radionuclide, or an EML.
• discrete particles are separated by a flow cytometer which detects the size, charge, flourescence, or absorbance of the particle.
• the invention also relates to methods using the probes complexed with the discrete particles to analyze target nucleic acids.
• These probes may be used in any of the methods described above, with the modification of identifying the probe by the physical property of the discrete particle.
• These probes may also be used in a format III approach where the "free" probe is identified by a label, and the probe complexed to the discrete particle is identified by the physical property.
• the probes are used to sequence a target nucleic acid using SBH.
• the invention also relates to methods using agents which destabilize the binding of complementary polynucleotide strands (decrease the binding energy), or increase stability of binding between complementary polynucleotide strands (increase the binding energy).
• the agent is a trialkyl ammonium salt, sodium chloride, phosphate salts, borate salts, organic solvents such as formamide, glycol. dimethylsulf oxide, and dimethylformamide. urea, guanidinium.
• an agent is used to reduce or increase the T m of a pair of complementary polynucleotides.
• a mixture of the agents is used to reduce or increase the T m of a pair of complementary polynucleotides.
• an agent or a mixture of agents is used to increase the discrimination of perfect matches from mismatches for complementary polynucleotides.
• the agent or agents are added so that the binding energy from an AT base pair is approximately equivalent to the binding energy of a GC base pair.
• the energy of binding of these complementary polynucleotides may be increased by adding an agent that neutralizes or shields the negative charges of the phosphate groups in the polynucleotide backbone.
• Figure 1 illustrates a top view of the apparatus for mass producing probe arrays.
• Figure 2 illustrates a side view of the apparatus for mass producing probe arrays.
• Figure 3 is an exploded side view of the dispensing unit of the apparatus for mass producing probe arrays.
• Format 1 SBH is appropriate for the simultaneous analysis of a large set of samples. Parallel scoring of thousands of samples on large arrays may be performed in thousands of independent hybridization reactions using small pieces of membranes.
• the identification of DNA may involve 1-20 probes per reaction and the identification of mutations may in some cases involve more than 1000 probes specifically selected or designed for each sample. For identification of the nature of the mutated DNA segments, specific probes may be synthesized or selected for each mutation detected in the first round of hybridizations.
• DNA samples may be prepared in small arrays which may be separated by appropriate spacers, and which may be simultaneously tested with probes selected from a set of oligonucleotides which may be arrayed in multiwell plates.
• Small arrays may consist of one or more samples. DNA samples in each small array may include mutants or individual samples of a sequence. Consecutive small arrays may be organized into larger arrays. Such larger arrays may include replication of the same small array or may include arrays of samples of different DNA fragments.
• a universal set of probes includes sufficient probes to analyze a DNA fragment with prespecified precision, e.g. with respect to the redundancy of reading each base pair ("bp"). These sets may include more probes than are necessary for one specific fragment, but may include fewer probes than are necessary for testing thousands of DNA samples of different sequence.
• DNA or allele identification and a diagnostic sequencing process may include the steps of:
• This approach provides fast identification and sequencing of a small number of nucleic acid samples of one type (e.g. DNA, RNA), and also provides parallel analysis of many sample types in the form of subarrays by using a presynthesized set of probes of manageable size.
• Two approaches have been combined to produce an efficient and versatile process for the determination of DNA identity, for DNA diagnostics, and for identification of mutations.
• a small set of shorter probes may be used in place of a longer unique probe.
• a universal set of probes may be synthesized to cover any type of sequence. For example, a full set of 6-mers includes only 4,096 probes, and a complete set of 7-mers includes only 16,384 probes.
• Full sequencing of a DNA fragment may be performed with two levels of hybridization.
• One level is hybridization of a sufficient set of probes that cover every base at least once.
• a specific set of probes may be synthesized for a standard sample.
• the results of hybridization with such a set of probes reveal whether and where mutations (differences) occur in non-standard samples. Further, this set of probes may include "negative " probes to confirm the hybridization results of the "positive " probes.
• additional specific probes may be hybridized to the sample. This additional set of probes will have both "positive” (the mutant sequence) and “negative” probes, and the sequence changes will be identified by the positive probes and confirmed by the negative probes.
• all probes from a universal set may be scored.
• a universal set of probes allows scoring of a relatively small number of probes per sample in a two step process without an undesirable expenditure of time.
• the hybridization process may involve successive probings, in a first step of computing an optimal subset of probes to be hybridized first and, then, on the basis of the obtained results, a second step of determining additional probes to be scored from among those in a universal set. Both sets of probes have "negative" probes that confirm the positive probes in the set. Further, the sequence that is obtained may then be confirmed in a separate step by hybridizing the sample with a set of "negative" probes identified from the SBH results.
• K -1 oligonucleotides which occur repeatedly in analyzed DNA fragments due to chance or biological reasons may be subject to special consideration. If there is no additional information, relatively small fragments of DNA may be fully assembled in as much as every base pair is read several times.
• ambiguities may arise due to the repeated occurrence in a set of positively-scored probes of a K-l sequence (i.e.. a sequence sho ⁇ er than the length of the probe). This problem does not exist if mutated or similar sequences have to be determined (i.e. , the K-l sequence is not identically repeated).
• Knowledge of one sequence may be used as a template to correctly assemble a sequence known to be similar (e.g. by its presence in a database) by arraying the positive probes for the unknown sequence to display the best fit on the template.
• an array of sample avoids consecutive scoring of many oligonucleotides on a single sample or on a small set of samples. This approach allows the scoring of more probes in parallel by manipulation of only one physical object.
• Subarrays of DNA samples 1000 bp in length may be sequenced in a relatively short period of time. If the samples are spotted at 50 subarrays in an array and the array is reprobed 10 times, 500 probes may be scored. In screening for the occurrence of a mutation, enough probes may be used to cover each base three times. If a mutation is present, several covering probes will be affected. The use of information about the identity of negative probes may map the mutation with a two base precision.
• an additional 15 probes may be employed. These probes cover any base combination for two questionable positions (assuming that deletions and insertions are not involved). These probes may be scored in one cycle on 50 subarrays which contain a given sample. In the implementation of a multiple label color scheme (i.e. , multiplexing), two to six probes, each having a different label such as a different fluorescent dye, may be used as a pool, thereby reducing the number of hybridization cycles and shortening the sequencing process.
• a multiple label color scheme i.e. , multiplexing
• subarrays to be analyzed include tens or hundreds of samples of one type, then several of them may be found to contain one or more changes (mutations, insertions, or deletions). For each segment where mutation occurs, a specific set of probes may be scored. The total number of probes to be scored for a type of sample may be several hundreds. The scoring of replica arrays in parallel facilitates scoring of hundreds of probes in a relatively small number of cycles. In addition, compatible probes may be pooled. Positive hybridizations may be assigned to the probes selected to check particular DNA segments because these segments usually differ in 75 % of their constituent bases.
• targets may be analyzed. These targets may represent pools of fragments such as pools of exon clones.
• a specific hybridization scoring method may be employed to define the presence of mutants in a genomic segment to be sequenced from a diploid chromosomal set. Two variations are where: i) the sequence from one chromosome represents a known allele and the sequence from the other represents a new mutant; or, ii) both chromosomes contain new, but different mutants. In both cases, the scanning step designed to map changes gives a maximal signal difference of two-fold at the mutant position. Further, the method can be used to identify which alleles of a gene are carried by an individual and whether the individual is homozygous or heterozygous for that gene.
• Scoring two-fold signal differences required in the first case may be achieved efficiently by comparing corresponding signals with homozygous and heterozygous controls.
• This approach allows determination of a relative reduction in the hybridization signal for each particular probe in a given sample. This is significant because hybridization efficiency may vary more than two-fold for a particular probe hybridized with different nucleic acid fragments having the same full match target.
• different mutant sites may affect more than one probe depending upon the number of oligonucleotide probes. Decrease of the signal for two to four consecutive probes produces a more significant indication of a mutant site.
• Results may be checked by testing with small sets of selected probes among which one or few probes selected to give a full match signal which is on average eight-fold stronger than the signals coming from mismatch-containing duplexes.
• Partitioned membranes allow a very flexible organization of experiments to accommodate relatively larger numbers of samples representing a given sequence type, or many different types of samples represented with relatively small numbers of samples.
• a range of 4-256 samples can be handled with particular efficiency.
• Subarrays within this range of numbers of dots may be designed to match the configuration and size of standard multiwell plates used for storing and labeling oligonucleotides. The size of the subarrays may be adjusted for different number of samples, or a few standard subarray sizes may be used.
• intermediate fragment means an oligonucleotide between 5 and 1000 bases in length, and preferably between 10 and 40 bp in length.
• a first set of oligonucleotide probes of known sequence is immobilized on a solid support under conditions which permit them to hybridize with nucleic acids having respectively complementary sequences.
• a labeled, second set of oligonucleotide probes is provided in solution. Both within the sets and between the sets the probes may be of the same length or of different lengths.
• a nucleic acid to be sequenced or intermediate fragments thereof may be applied to the first set of probes in double-stranded form (especially where a recA protein is present to permit hybridization under non-denaturing conditions), or in single-stranded form and under conditions which permit hybrids of different degrees of complementarity (for example, under conditions which allow discrimination between full match and one base pair mismatch hybrids).
• the nucleic acid to be sequenced or intermediate fragments thereof may be applied to the first set of probes before, after or simultaneously with the second set of probes.
• Probes that bind to adjacent sites on the target are bound together (e.g. , by stacking interactions or by a ligase or other means of causing chemical bond formation between the adjacent probes).
• fragments and probes which are not immobilized to the surface by chemical bonding to a member of the first set of probe are washed away, for example, using a high temperature (up to 100 degrees C) wash solution which melts hybrids.
• the bound probes from the second set may then be detected using means appropriate to the label employed (which may, for example, be chemiluminescent, fluorescent, radioactive, enzymatic, densitometric, or electrophore mass labels).
• nucleotide bases "match” or are “complementary” if they form a stable duplex by hydrogen bonding under specified conditions.
• adenine matches thymine (“T), but not guanine (“G”) or cytosine ("C”).
• G matches C, but not A or T.
• Other bases which will hydrogen bond in less specific fashion such as inosine or the Universal Base (“M” base, Nichols et al 1994). or other modified bases, such as methylated bases, for example, are complementary to those bases for which they form a stable duplex under specified conditions.
• a probe is said to be “perfectly complementary” or is said to be a "perfect match” if each base in the probe forms a duplex by hydrogen bonding to a base in the nucleic acid to be sequenced according to the Watson and Crick base paring rules (i.e.. absent any surrounding sequence effects, the duplex formed has the maximal binding energy for a particular probe).
• Perfectly complementary and “perfect match” are also meant to encompass probes which have analogs or modified nucleotides.
• a "perfect match” for an analog or modified nucleotide is judged according to a "perfect match rule" selected for that analog or modified nucleotide (e.g., the binding pair that has maximal binding energy for a particular analog or modified nucleotide).
• Each base in a probe that does not form a binding pair according to the "rules" is said to be a "mismatch" under the specified hybridization conditions.
• a list of probes may be assembled wherein each probe is a perfect match to the nucleic acid to be sequenced.
• the probes on this list may then be analyzed to order them in maximal overlap fashion. Such ordering may be accomplished by comparing a first probe to each of the other probes on the list to determine which probe has a 3' end which has the longest sequence of bases identical to the sequence of bases at the 5' end of a second probe.
• the first and second probes may then be overlapped, and the process may be repeated by comparing the 5' end of the second probe to the 3' end of all of the remaining probes and by comparing the 3' end of the first probe with the 5' end of all of the remaining probes.
• the process may be continued until there are no probes on the list which have not been overlapped with other probes.
• more than one probe may be selected from the list of positive probes, and more than one set of overlapped probes ("sequence nucleus") may be generated in parallel.
• the list of probes for either such process of sequence assembly may be the list of all probes which are perfectly complementary to the nucleic acid to be sequenced or may be any subset thereof.
• the 5' and 3' ends of the probes may be overlapped to generate longer stretches of sequence. This process of assembling probes continues until an ambiguity arises because of a branch point (a probe is repeated in the fragment), repetitive sequences longer than the probes, or an uncloned segment.
• the stretches of sequence between any two ambiguities are referred to as fragment of a subclone sequence (Sfs).
• Sfs subclone sequence
• a pattern of hybridization which may be correlated with the identity of a nucleic acid sample to serve as a signature for identifying the nucleic acid sample
• overlapping or non-overlapping probes up through assembled Sfs and on to complete sequence for an intermediate fragment or an entire source DNA molecule (e.g. a chromosome).
• Sequencing may generally comprise the following steps: (a) contacting an array of immobilized oligonucleotide probes with a nucleic acid fragment under conditions effective to allow the fragment to form a primary complex with an immobilized probe having a complementary sequence; (b) contacting this primary complex with a set of labeled oligonucleotide probes in solution under conditions effective to allow the primary complex to hybridize to the labeled probe, thereby forming secondary complexes wherein the fragment is hybridized with both an immobilized probe and a labeled probe;
• Hybridization and washing conditions may be selected to detect substantially perfect match hybrids (such as those wherein the fragment and probe hybridize at six out of seven positions), may be selected to allow differentiation of perfect matches and one base pair mismatches, or may be selected to permit detection only of perfect match hybrids.
• Suitable hybridization conditions may be routinely determined by optimization procedures or pilot studies. Such procedures and studies are routinely conducted by those skilled in the art to establish protocols for use in a laboratory. See e.g. , Ausubel et al. , Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Vol. 1-2, John Wiley & Sons (1989): Sambrook et al..
• detection may rely solely on washing steps of controlled stringency. Under such conditions, adjacent probes have increased binding affinity because of stacking interactions between the adjacent probes. Conditions may be varied to optimize the process as described above.
• the immobilized and labeled probes are ligated.
• ligation may be implemented by a chemical ligating agent (e.g. water-soluble carbodiimide or cyanogen bromide), or a ligase enzyme, such as the commercially available T 4 DNA ligase may be employed.
• a chemical ligating agent e.g. water-soluble carbodiimide or cyanogen bromide
• a ligase enzyme such as the commercially available T 4 DNA ligase may be employed.
• the washing conditions may be selected to distinguish between adjacent versus nonadjacent labeled and immobilized probes exploiting the difference in stability for adjacent probes versus nonadjacent probes.
• Oligonucleotide probes may be labeled with fluorescent dyes, chemiluminescent systems, radioactive labels (e.g. , 35 S, 3 H, 32 P or 33 P) or with isotopes detectable by mass spectrometry.
• nucleic acid molecule of unknown sequence is longer than about 45 or 50 bp
• the molecule may be fragmented and the sequences of the fragments determined. Fragmentation may be accomplished by restriction enzyme digestion, shearing or NaOH. Fragments may be separated by size (e.g. by gel electrophoresis) to obtain a preferred fragment length of about ten to forty bps.
• Oligonucleotides may be immobilized, by a number of methods known to those skilled in the an. such as laser-activated photodeprotection attachment through a phosphate group using reagents such as a nucleoside phosphoramidite or a nucleoside hydrogen phosphorate. Glass, nylon, silicon and fluorocarbon supports may be used.
• Oligonucleotides may be organized into arrays, and these arrays may include all or a subset of all probes of a given length, or sets of probes of selected lengths. Hydrophobic partitions may be used to separate probes or subarrays of probes. Arrays may be designed for various applications (e.g. mapping, partial sequencing, sequencing of targeted regions for diagnostic purposes, mRNA sequencing and large scale sequencing). A specific chip may be designed to be dedicated to a particular application by selecting a combination and arrangement of probes on a substrate.
• 1024 immobilized probe arrays of all oligonucleotide probes 5 bases in length may be constructed.
• the probes in this example are 5-mers in an informational sense (they may actually be longer probes).
• a second set of 1024 5-mer probes may be labeled, and one of each labeled probe may be applied to an array of immobilized probes along with a fragment to be sequenced.
• 1024 arrays would be combined in a large superarray, or "superchip. " In those instances where an immobilized probe and one of the labeled probes hybridize end -to-end along a nucleic acid fragment.
• the two probes are joined, for example by ligation, and, after removing unbound label, 10-mers complementary to the sample fragment are detected by the correlation of the presence of a label at a point in an array having an immobilized probe of known sequence to which was applied a labeled probe of known sequence.
• the sequence of the sample fragment is simply the sequence of the immobilized probe continued in the sequence of the labeled probe. In this way, all one million possible 10-mers may be tested by a combinatorial process which employs only 5-mers and which thus involves one thousandth of the amount of effort for oligonucleotide synthesis.
• the substrate which supports the array of oligonucleotide probes is partitioned into sections so that each probe in the array is separated from adjacent probes by a physical barrier which may be, for example, a hydrophobic material.
• the physical barrier has a width of from 100 ⁇ m to 30 ⁇ m.
• the distance from the center of each probe to the center of any adjacent probes is 325 ⁇ m.
• the oligonucleotide probes are fixed to a three-dimensional array.
• the three-dimensional array is comprised of multiple layers, and each layer may be analyzed separate and apart from the other layers.
• the three dimensional array may take a number of forms, including, for example, the array may be disposed on a substrate having multiple depressions with probes located at different depths within the depressions (each level is made up of probes at similar depths within the depression); or the array may be disposed on a substrate having depressions of different depths with the probes located at the bottom of the depression, or at the peaks separating the depressions or some combination of peaks and depressions may be used (each level is made up of all the probes at a certain depth); or the array may be disposed on a substrate comprised of multiple sheets that are layered to form a three-dimensional array.
• the probes in these arrays may include spacers that increase the distance between the surface of the substrate and the informational portion of the probes.
• the spacers may be comprised of atoms capable of forming at least two covalent bonds such as carbon, silicon, oxygen, sulfur, phosphorous, and the like, or may be comprised of molecules capable of forming at least two covalent bonds such as sugar-phosphate groups, amino acids, peptides, nucleosides, nucleotides, sugars, carbohydrates, aromatic rings, hydrocarbon rings, linear and branched hydrocarbons, and the like.
• a nucleic acid sample to be sequenced may be fragmented or otherwise treated (for example, by the use of recA) to avoid hindrance to hybridization from secondary structure in the sample.
• the sample may be fragmented by, for example, digestion with a restriction enzyme such as Cyi JI, physical shearing (e.g. by ultrasound ), or by NaOH treatment.
• the resulting fragments may be separated by gel electrophoresis and fragments of an appropriate length, such as between about 10 bp and about 40 bp. may be extracted from the gel.
• the "fragments" of the nucleic acid sample cannot be ligated to other fragments in the pool.
• Such a pool of fragments may be obtained by treating the fragmented nucleic acids with a phosphatase (e.g., calf intestinal phosphatase).
• a phosphatase e.g., calf intestinal phosphatase
• a reusable Format 3 SBH array may be produced by introducing a cleavable bond between the fixed and labeled probes and then cleaving this bond after a round of Format 3 analyzes is finished.
• the labeled probes may be ribonucleotides or a ribonucleotide may be used as the joining base in the labeled probe so that this probe may subsequently be removed, e.g.. by RNAse or uracil-DNA glycosylate treatment, or NaOH treatment.
• bonds produced by chemical ligation may be selectively cleaved.
• oligonucleotides to increase specificity or efficiency
• cycling hybridizations to increase the hybridization signal, for example by performing a hybridization cycle under conditions (e.g. temperature) optimally selected for a first set of labeled probes followed by hybridization under conditions optimally selected for a second set of labeled probes.
• Shifts in reading frame may be determined by using mixtures (preferably mixtures of equimolar amounts) of probes ending in each of the four nucleotide bases A, T, C and G.
• Branch points produce ambiguities as to the ordered sequence of a fragment.
• sequence information is determined by SBH, either: (i) long read length, single-pass gel sequencing at a fraction of the cost of complete gel sequencing; or (ii) comparison to related sequences, may be used to order hybridization data where such ambiguities ("branch points") occur.
• Primers for single pass gel sequencing through the branch points are identified from the SBH sequence information or from known vector sequences, e.g. , the flanking sequences to the vector insert site, and standard Sanger- sequencing reactions are performed on the sample nucleic acid.
• the sequence obtained from this single pass gel sequencing is compared to the Sfs that read into and out of the branch points to identify the order of the Sfs.
• the Sfs may be ordered by comparing the sequence of the Sfs to related sequences and ordering the Sfs to produce a sequence that is closest to the related sequence.
• the number of tandem repetitive nucleic acid segments in a target fragment may be determined by single-pass gel sequencing. As tandem repeats occur rarely in protein-encoding portions of a gene, the gel-sequencing step will be performed only when one of these noncoding regions is identified as being of particular interest (e.g.. if it is an important regulatory region).
• Obtaining information about the degree of hybridization exhibited for a set of only about 200 oligonucleotides probes defines a unique signature of each gene and may be used for sorting the cDNAs from a library to determine if the library contains multiple copies of the same gene.
• signatures identical, similar and different cDNAs can be distinguished and inventoried.
• nucleic acids and methods for isolating, cloning and sequencing nucleic acids are well known to those of skill in the art. See e.g. , Ausubel et al.. Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Vol. 1-2, John Wiley & Sons (1989); and Sambrook et al.. Molecular
• SBH is a well developed technology that may be practiced by a number of methods known to those skilled in the art. Specifically, techniques related to sequencing by hybridization of the following documents is incorporated by reference herein:
• Drmanac et al. Genomics, 4, 114-128 (1989); Drmanac et al.,
• the first is a complete set (or at least a noncomplementary subset) of relatively short probes, for example all 4096 (or about 2000 non-complementary) 6-mers, or all 16,384 (or about 8,000 non-complementary) 7-mers. Full noncomplementary subsets of 8-mers and longer probes are less convenient inasmuch as they include 32,000 or more probes.
• a second type of probe set is selected as a small subset of probes still sufficient for reading every bp in any sequence with at least with one probe. For example, 12 of 16 dimers are sufficient.
• a small subset for 7-mers, 8-mer and 9-mers for sequencing double stranded DNA may be about 3000, 10,000 and 30,000 probes, respectively.
• Sets of probes may also be selected to identify a target nucleic acid of known sequence, and/or to identify alleles or mutants of a target nucleic acid with a known sequence.
• Such a set of probes contains sufficient probes so that every nucleotide position of the target nucleic acid is read at least once. Alleles or mutants are identified by the loss of binding of one of the "positive" probes. The specific sequence of these alleles or mutants is then determined by interrogating the target nucleic acid with sets of probes that contain every possible nucleotide change and combination of changes at these probe positions.
• Sets of probes may also be comprised of from 50 probes to a universal set of probes (all probes of a certain length), more preferably the set is comprised of 100-500 probes, and in a most preferred embodiment, the probe set contains 300 probes.
• the set of probes are 6-9 nucleotides in length, and are used to cluster cDNA clones into groups of similar or identical sequences, so that single representative clones may be selected from each group for sequencing.
• Probes may be prepared using standard chemistry with one to three non-specified (mixed A,T,C and G) or universal (e.g. M base or inosine) bases at the ends. If radiolabelling is used, probes may have an OH group at the 5' end for kinasing by radiolabelled phosphorous groups. Alternatively, probes labelled with any compatible system, such as fluorescent dyes, may be employed. Other types of probes, such as PNA (Protein Nucleic Acids)or probes containing modified bases which change duplex stability also may be used. Probes may be stored in bar-coded multiwell plates.
• probes For small numbers of probes, 96-well plates may be used; for 10,000 or more probes, storage in 384- or 864-well plates is preferred. Stacks of 5 to 50 plates are enough to store all probes. Approximately 5 pg of a probe may be sufficient for hybridization with one DNA sample. Thus, from a small synthesis of about 50 mg per probe, ten million samples may be analyzed. If each probe is used for every third sample, and if each sample is 1000 bp in length, then over 30 billion bases (10 human genomes) may be sequenced by a set of 5.000 probes.
• Modified oligonucleotides may be introduced into hybridization probes and used under appropriate conditions therefor.
• pyrimidines with a halogen at the exposition may be used to improve duplex stability by influencing base stacking.
• 2,6-diaminopurine may be used to provide a third hydrogen bond in base pairing with thymine. thereby thermally stabilizing DNA-duplexes.
• 2,5-diaminopurine may increase duplex stability to allow more stringent conditions for annealing, thereby improving the specificity of duplex formation, suppressing background problems and permitting the use of shorter oligomers.
• Non-discriminatory base analogue or universal base, as designed by Nichols et al. (1994).
• This new analogue l-(2 -deoxy- -D-ribfuranosyl)-3-nitropyrrole (designated M)
• M l-(2 -deoxy- -D-ribfuranosyl)-3-nitropyrrole
• This analogue maximizes stacking while minimizing hydrogen-bonding interactions without sterically disrupting a DNA duplex.
• the M nucleoside analogue was designed to maximize stacking interactions using aprotic polar substituents linked to heteroaromatic rings, enhancing intra- and inter- strand stacking interactions to lessen the role of hydrogen bonding in base-pairing specificity.
• Nichols et al. (1994) favored 3-nitropyrrole 2 -deoxyribonucleoside because of its structural and electronic resemblance to p-nitroaniline. whose derivatives are among the smallest known intercalators of double-stranded DNA.
• the dimethoxytrityl-protected phosphoramidite of nucleoside M is also available for incorporation into nucleotides used as primers for sequencing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• PCR polymerase chain reaction
• M has a unique property of its ability to replace long strings of contiguous nucleosides and still yield functional sequencing primers. Sequences with three, six and nine M substitutions have all been reported to give readable sequencing ladders, and PCR with three different M-containing primers all resulted in amplification of the correct product (Nichols et al., 1994).
• the sets of probes to be hybridized in each of the hybridization cycles on each of the subarrays is defined. For example, a set of 384 probes may be selected from the universal set, and 96 probings may be performed in each of 4 cycles. Probes selected to be hybridized in one cycle preferably have similar G+C contents.
• Selected probes for each cycle are transferred to a 96-well plate and then are labelled by kinasing or by other labeling procedures if they are not labelled (e.g. with stable fluorescent dyes) before they are stored.
• a new set of probes may be defined for each of the subarrays for additional cycles. Some of the arrays may not be used in some of the cycles. For example, if only 8 of 64 patient samples exhibit a mutation and 8 probes are scored first for each mutation, then all 64 probes may be scored in one cycle and 32 subarrays are not used. These unused subarrays may then be treated with hybridization buffer to prevent drying of the filters.
• Probes may be retrieved from the storing plates by any convenient approach, such as a single channel pipetting device, or a robotic station, such as a Beckman Biomek 1000 (Beckman Instruments, Fullerton, California) or a Mega Two robot (Megamation, Lawrenceville, New Jersey).
• a robotic station may be integrated with data analysis programs and probe managing programs. Outputs of these programs may be inputs for one or more robotic stations.
• Probes may be retrieved one by one and added to subarrays covered by hybridization buffer. It is preferred that retrieved probes be placed in a new plate and labelled or mixed with hybridization buffer.
• the preferred method of retrieval is by accessing stored plates one by one and pipetting (or transferring by metal pins) a sufficient amount of each selected probe from each plate to specific wells in an intermediary plate.
• An array of individually addressable pipettes or pins may be used to speed up the retrieval process.
• oligonucleotide probes may be prepared by automated synthesis, which is routine to those of skill in the art, for example, using and Applied Biosystems system. Alternatively, probes may be prepared using Genosys Biotechnologies Inc. Methods using stacks of porous Teflon wafers.
• Oligonucleotide probes may be labeled with, for example, radioactive labels ( 35 S, 32 P, 33 P, and preferably, 33 P) for arrays with 100-200 urn or 100-400 urn spots; non-radioactive isotopes (Jacobsen et al., 1990); or fluorophores (Brumbaugh et al., 1988). All such labeling methods are routine in the art, as exemplified by the relevant sections in Sambrook et al. (1989) and by further references such as Schubert et al. (1990), Murakami et al. (1991) and Cate et al. (1991), all articles being specifically incorporated herein by reference.
• radiolabelling the common methods are end-labeling using T4 polynucleotide kinase or high specific activity labeling using Klenow or even T7 polymerase. These are described as follows.
• Synthetic oligonucleotides are synthesized without a phosphate group at their 5 termini and are therefore easily labeled by transfer of the - 32 P or - 33 P from [ - 32 P]ATP or [ - 33 P]ATP using the enzyme bacteriophage T4 polynucleotide kinase. If the reaction is carried out efficiently, the specificity activity of such probes can be as high as the specific activity of the [ - 32 P]ATP or [ - 33 P]ATP itself.
• the reaction described below is designed to label 10 pmoles of an oligonucleotide to high specific activity. Labeling of different amounts of oligonucleotide can easily be achieved by increasing or decreasing the size of the reaction, keeping the concentrations of all components constant.
• a reaction mixture would be created using 1.0 ul of oligonucleotide (10 pmoles/ul); 2.0 ul of 10 x bacteriophage T4 polynucleotide kinase buffer; 5.0 ul of [ - 32 P]ATP or [ - 33 P]ATP (sp. Act. 5000 Ci/mmole; 10 mCi/ml in aqueous solution) (10 pmoles); and 11.4 ul of water. Eight (8) units ( - 1 ul) of bacteriophage T4 polynucleotide kinase is added to the reaction mixture, and incubated for 45 minutes at 37°C. The reaction is heated for 10 minutes at 68°C to inactivate the bacteriophage T4 polynucleotide kinase.
• the efficiency of transfer of 32 P or 33 P to the oligonucleotide and its specific activity is then determined. If the specific activity of the probe is acceptable, it is purified. If the specific activity is too low, an additional 8 units of enzyme is added and incubated for a further 30 minutes at 37°C before heating the reaction for 10 minutes at 68°C to inactivate the enzyme.
• Radiolabeled oligonucleotides can be achieved by, e.g. , precipitation with ethanol; precipitation with cetylpyridinium bromide; by chromatography through bio-gel P-60; or by chromatography on a Sep-Pak C l9 column, or by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
• Probes of higher specific activities can be obtained using the Klenow fragment of E. coli.
• DNA polymerase I to synthesize a strand of DNA complementary to the synthetic oligonucleotide.
• a short primer is hybridized to an oligonucleotide template whose sequence is the complement of the desired radiolabeled probe.
• the primer is then extended using the Klenow fragment of E. coli DNA polymerase I to incorporate [ - 32 P] dNTPs or [ - 33 P] dNTPs in a template-directed manner.
• the template and product are separated by denaturation followed by electrophoresis through a polyacrylamide gel under denaturing conditions. With this method, it is possible to generate oligonucleotide probes that contain several radioactive atoms per molecule of oligonucleotide.
• 0.1 volume of 10 x Klenow buffer would then be added and mixed well. 2-4 units of the Klenow fragment of E.coli DNA polymerase I would then be added per 5 ul of reaction volume, mixed and incubated for 2-3 hours at 4°C. If desired, the process of the reaction may be monitored by removing small (0.1 ul) aliquots and measuring the proportion of radioactivity that has become precipitable with 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA).
• TCA trichloroacetic acid
• the reaction would be diluted with an equal volume of gel-loading buffer, heated to 80oC for 3 minutes, and then the entire sample loaded on a denaturing polyacrylamide gel. Following electrophoresis, the gel is autoradiographed, allowing the probe to be localized and removed from the gel.
• Various methods for fluorescent probe labeling are also available, e.g., Brumbaugh et al. (1988) describe the synthesis of fluorescently labeled primers.
• a deoxyuridine analog with a primary amine "linker arm " of 12 atoms attached at C-5 is synthesized. Synthesis of the analog consists of derivatizing 2 -deoxyuridine through organometallic intermediates to give 5 (methyl propenoyl)-2 -deoxyuridine.
• oligonucleotide To a solution of 50 nmol of the linker arm oligonucleotide in 25 ul of 500 mM sodium biocarbonate (pH 9.4) is added 20 ul of 300 mM FITC in dimethyl sulfoxide. The mixture is agitated at room temperature for 6 hrs. The oligonucleotide is separated from free FITC by elution form a 1 x 30 cm Sephadex G-25 column with 20 mM ammonium acetate (pH 6), combining fractions in the first UV-absorbing peak.
• fluorescent labeling of an oligonucleotide at its 5'-end initially involved two steps.
• N-protected aminoalkyl phosphoramidite derivative is added to the 5'- end of an oligonucleotide during automated nucleic acid synthesis. After removal of all protecting groups, the ⁇ HS ester of an appropriate fluorescent dye is coupled to the 5'- amino group overnight followed by purification of the labeled oligonucleotide from the excess of dye using reverse phase HPLC or PAGE.
• Schubert et al. (1990) described the synthesis of a phosphoramidite that enables oligonucleotides labeled with fluorescein to be produced during automated D ⁇ A synthesis.
• Murakami et al. also described the preparation of flourescein-labeled oligonucleotides.
• oligonucleotide probes directly conjugated to alkaline phosphatase in combination with a direct chemiluminescent substrate (AMPPD) to allow probe detection.
• AMPPD direct chemiluminescent substrate
• Labeled probes could readily be purchased form a variety of commercial sources, including GE ⁇ SET, rather then synthesized.
• Od er labels include ligands which can serve as specific binding members to a labeled antibody, chemiluminescers, enzymes, antibodies which can serve as a specific binding pair member for a labeled ligand, and the like.
• labels have been employed in immunoassays which can readily be employed.
• Still other labels include antigens, groups with specific reactivity, and electrochemically detectable moeities.
• Electrophores are compounds that can be detected with high sensitivity by electron capture mass spectrometry (EC -MS). EMLs can be attached to a probe using chemistry that is well known in the art for reversibly modifying a nucleotide (e.g., well known nucleotide synthesis chemistry teaches a variety of methods for attaching molecules to nucleotides as protecting groups). EMLs are detected using a variety of well known electron capture mass spectrometry devices (e.g., devices sold by Finnigan Corporation).
• EMLs include, for example, fast atomic bombardment mass spectrometry (see, e.g., Koster et al.. Biomedical Environ. Mass Spec. 14: 111-116 (1987)); plasma desorption mass spectrometry; electrospray/ionspray (see, e.g. , Fenn et al., J. Phys. Chem. 88:4451-59 (1984), PCT Appln. No. WO 90/14148, Smith et al. , Anal. Chem. 62:882-89 (1990)); and matrix- assisted laser desorption/ionization (Hillenkamp, et al.
• fast atomic bombardment mass spectrometry see, e.g., Koster et al.. Biomedical Environ. Mass Spec. 14: 111-116 (1987)
• plasma desorption mass spectrometry see, e.g. , electrospray/ionspray (see, e.g
• the EMLs are attached to a probe by a covalent bond that is light sensitive.
• the EML is released from the probe after hybridization with a target nucleic acid by a laser or other light source emitting the desired wavelength of light.
• the EML is then fed into a GC-MS (gas chromatograph -mass spectrometer) or other appropriate device, and identified by its mass.
• a basic example is using 6-mers attached to 50 micron surfaces to give a chip with dimensions of 3 x 3 mm which can be combined to give an array of 20 x 20 cm.
• Another example is using 9-mer oligonucleotides attached to 10 x 10 microns surface to create a 9-mer chip, with dimensions of 5 x 5 mm. 4000 units of such chips may be used to create a 30 x 30 cm array. In an array in which 4,000 to 16,000 oligochips are arranged into a square array. A plate, or collection of tubes, as also depicted, may be packaged with the array as part of the sequencing kit.
• the arrays may be separated physically from each other or by hydrophobic surfaces.
• hydrophobic strip separation is to use technology such as the Iso-Grid Microbiology System produced by QA Laboratories,
• HGMF Hydrophobic grid membrane filters
• ISO-GRIDTM from QA Laboratories Ltd. (Toronto, Canada) which consists of a square (60 x 60 cm) of polysulfone polymer (Gelman Tuffryn HT-450, 0.45u pore size) on which is printed a black hydrophobic ink grid consisting of 1600 (40 x 40) square cells.
• HGMF have previously been inoculated with bacterial suspensions by vacuum filtration and incubated on the differential or selective media of choice.
• the HGMF functions more like an MPN apparatus than a conventional plate or membrane filter.
• Peterkin et al. (1987) reported that these HGMFs can be used to propagate and store genomic libraries when used with a HGMF replicator.
• One such instrument replicates growth from each of the 1600 cells of the ISO-GRID and enables many copies of the master HGMF to be made (Peterkin et al., 1987).
• Sharpe et al. (1989) also used ISO-GRID HGMF form QA Laboratories and an automated HGMF counter (MI- 100 Interpreter) and RP-100 Replicator. They reported a technique for maintaining and screening many microbial cultures.
• the specified bases can be surrounded by unspecified bases, thus represented by a formula such as (N)nBx(N)m.
• the substrate which supports the array of oligonucleotide probes is partitioned into sections so that each probe in the array is separated from adjacent probes by a physical barrier which may be, for example, a hydrophobic material.
• the physical barrier has a width of from 300 ⁇ m to 30 ⁇ m, and the distance between the center of each physical barrier to the center of adjacent physical barriers is at least 325 ⁇ m.
• a hydrophobic material is deposited onto the substrate to form barriers of the desired width using an ink-jet head, coupled to an appropriate robotic system.
• a microdrop dosing head that has been adapted to apply a suspension or solution of a desired hydrophobic material (e.g. , an oil based material that forms a barrier after the solvent has evaporated), may be coupled with an anorad gantry system and fitted to an appropriate housing and dispensing system so that a grid of the hydrophobic material may be applied onto the desired substrate forming a plurality of wells on the substrate.
• probes are spotted onto each well (or mixtures of probes may be applied to each well) using a robotic system similar to that used to form the grid, but that has been adapted to apply solutions or suspensions of probes.
• the same robotic system is used to apply the hydrophobic grid and the probes.
• the dispensing system is flushed after the hydrophobic grid is applied and then primed for delivery of probe.
• Oligonucleotides i.e. , small nucleic acid segments, may be readily prepared by, for example, directly synthesizing the oligonucleotide by chemical means, as is commonly practiced using an automated oligonucleotide synthesizer.
• oligonucleotides may be bound to a support through appropriate reactive groups. Such groups are well known in the art and include, for example, amino (-NH 2 ); hydroxyl (-OH); or carboxyl (CO 2 H) groups. Support bound oligonucleotides may be prepared by any of the methods known to those of skill in the art using any suitable support such as glass, polystyrene or Teflon. One strategy is to precisely spot oligonucleotides synthesized by standard synthesizers.
• Immobilization can be achieved by many methods, including, for example, using passive adsorption (Inouye & Hondo, 1990); using UV light (Nagata et al., 1985; Dahlen et al., 1987; Morriey & Collins, 1989); or by covalent binding of base modified DNA (Keller et al., 1988; 1989); or by formation of amide groups between the probe and the support (Wall et al., 1995; Chebab et al., 1992; and Zhang et al., 1991); all references being specifically incorporated herein.
• Another strategy that may be employed is the use of the strong biotin-streptavidin interaction as a linker.
• Broude et al. (1994) describe the use of Biotinylated probes, although these are duplex probes, that are immobilized on streptavidin-coated magnetic beads.
• Streptavidin-coated beads may be purchased from Dynal, Oslo. Of course, this same linking chemistry is applicable to coating any surface with streptavidin.
• Biotinylated probes may be purchased from various sources, such as, e.g. , Operon Technologies (Alameda, CA).
• CovaLink NH is a polystyrene surface grafted with secondary amino groups ( > NH) that serve as bridge-heads for further covalent coupling.
• CovaLink Modules may be purchased from Nunc Laboratories. DNA molecules may be bound to CovaLink exclusively at me 5 " -end by a phosphoramidate bond, allowing immobilization of more than 1 pmol of DNA (Rasmussen et al. , 1991).
• CovaLink NH strips for covalent binding of DNA molecules at the 5 '-end has been described (Rasmussen et al., 1991). In this technology, a phosphoramidate bond is employed (Chu et al. , 1983). This is beneficial as immobilization using only a single covalent bond is preferred.
• the phosphoramidate bond joins the DNA to the CovaLink NH secondary amino groups that are positioned at the end of spacer arms covalently grafted onto the polystyrene surface through a 2 nm long spacer arm.
• the oligonucleotide terminus must have a 5 '-end phosphate group. It is. perhaps, even possible for biotin to be covalently bound to CovaLink and then streptavidin used to bind the probes.
• the linkage method includes dissolving DNA in water (7.5 ng/ul) and denaturing for 10 min. at 95°C and cooling on ice for 10 min. Ice-cold 0.1 M 1-methylimidazole, pH 7.0 (1-Melm 7 ), is then added to a final concentration of 10 mM 1-Melm 7 . A ss DNA solution is then dispensed into CovaLink NH strips (75 ul/well) standing on ice.
• EDC l-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide
• a further suitable method for use with the present invention is that described in PCT Patent Application WO 90/03382 (Southern & Maskos), incorporated herein by reference.
• This method of preparing an oligonucleotide bound to a support involves attaching a nucleoside 3 '-reagent through the phosphate group by a covalent phosphodiester link to aliphatic hydroxyl groups carried by the support.
• the oligonucleotide is then synthesized on the supported nucleoside and protecting groups removed from the synthetic oligonucleotide chain under standard conditions that do not cleave the oligonucleotide from the support.
• Suitable reagents include nucleoside phosphoramidite and nucleoside hydrogen phosphorate.
• An on-chip strategy for the preparation of DNA probe for the preparation of DNA probe arrays may be employed.
• addressable laser-activated photodeprotection may be employed in the chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides directly on a glass surface, as described by Fodor et al. (1991), incorporated herein by reference.
• Probes may also be immobilized on nylon supports as described by Van Ness et al.
• the probes of the invention include an informational portion (the portion which hybridizes to the target nucleic acid and gives sequence information) a reactive group to be attached to die substrate (solid support), and randomized positions, i.e. , any of the four bases may be found at these positions.
• the probe may be bound to the support and a spacer moiety is found at the end of the probe or internal to the probe and 5' of (N) 3 .
• the spacers may be comprised of atoms capable of forming at least two covalent bonds such as carbon, silicon, oxygen, sulfur, phosphorous, and the like, or may be comprised of molecules capable of forming at least two covalent bonds such as sugar-phosphate groups, amino acids, peptides. nucleosides. nucleotides, sugars, carbohydrates, aromatic rings, hydrocarbon rings, linear and branched hydrocarbons, and the like.
• nucleic acids to be sequenced may be obtained from any appropriate source, such as cDNAs, genomic DNA, chromosomal DNA, microdissected chromosome bands, cosmid or YAC inserts, and RNA, including mRNA without any amplification steps.
• cDNAs genomic DNA
• chromosomal DNA chromosomal DNA
• microdissected chromosome bands cosmid or YAC inserts
• RNA including mRNA without any amplification steps.
• target nucleic acid fragments may be prepared as clones in Ml 3, plasmid or lambda vectors and/or prepared directly from genomic DNA or cDNA by PCR or oti er amplification methods. Samples may be prepared or dispensed in multiwell plates.
• Target nucleic acids prepared by PCR may be directly applied to a substrate for Format I SBH without purification. Once the target nucleic acids are fixed to the substrate, the substrate may be washed or directly annealed with probes.
• nucleic acids would then be fragmented by any of the methods known to those of skill in the art including, for example, using restriction enzymes as described at 9.24-9.28 of Sambrook et al. (1989), shearing by ultrasound and NaOH treatment. Low pressure shearing is also appropriate, as described by Schriefer et al. (1990, incorporated herein by reference). In this method. DNA samples are passed through a small French pressure cell at a variety of low to intermediate pressures. A lever device allows controlled application of low to intermediate pressures to the cell. The results of these studies indicate that low-pressure shearing is a useful alternative to sonic and enzymatic DNA fragmentation methods.
• One particularly suitable way for fragmenting DNA is contemplated to be that using the two base recognition endonuclease, Cvill. described by Fitzgerald et al. (1992). These authors described an approach for the rapid fragmentation and fractionation of DNA into particular sizes that they contemplated to be suitable for shotgun cloning and sequencing. The present inventor envisions that this will also be particularly useful for generating random, but relatively small, fragments of DNA for use in the present sequencing technology.
• the restriction endonuclease CviJl normally cleaves the recognition sequence PuGCPy between the G and C to leave blunt ends.
• Atypical reaction conditions which alter the specificity of this enzyme (Cv/JI**), yield a quasi-random distribution of DNA fragments form me small molecule pUC19 (2688 base pairs).
• Fitzgerald et al. (1992) quantitatively evaluated die randomness of this fragmentation strategy, using a Cv/JI** digest of pUC19 that was size fractionated by a rapid gel filtration method and directly ligated. without end repair, to a lac Z minus M13 cloning vector. Sequence analysis of 76 clones showed that Cv/JI** restricts pyGCPy and PuGCPu, in addition to PuGCPy sites, and that new sequence data is accumulated at a rate consistent with random fragmentation.
• advantages of this approach compared to sonication and agarose gel fractionation include: smaller amounts of DNA are required (0.2-0.5 ug instead of 2-5 ug); and fewer steps are involved (no preligation, end repair, chemical extraction, or agarose gel electrophoresis and elution are needed). These advantages are also proposed to be of use when preparing DNA for sequencing by Format 3.
• me “fragments" of the nucleic acid sample are prepared so that they cannot be ligated to each otiier.
• a pool of fragments may be obtained by treating the fragmented nucleic acids obtained by enzyme digestion or physical shearing, with a phosphatase (e.g., calf intestinal phosphatase).
• Arrays may be prepared by spotting DNA samples on a support such as a nylon membrane. Spotting may be performed by using arrays of metal pins (the positions of which correspond to an array of wells in a microtiter plate) to repeated by transfer of about 20 nl of a DNA solution to a nylon membrane. By offset printing, a density of dots higher than the density of the wells is achieved. One to 25 dots may be accommodated in 1 mm 2 , depending on the type of label used. By avoiding spotting in some preselected number of rows and columns, separate subsets (subarrays) may be formed. Samples in one subarray may be the same genomic segment of DNA (or the same gene) from different individuals, or may be different, overlapped genomic clones.
• Each of the subarrays may represent replica spotting of the same samples.
• a selected gene segment may be amplified from 64 patients.
• the amplified gene segment may be in one 96-well plate (all 96 wells containing the same sample). A plate for each of the 64 patients is prepared. By using a 96-pin device, all samples may be spotted on one 8 x 12 cm membrane.
• Subarrays may contain 64 samples, one from each patient. Where the 96 subarrays are identical, the dot span may be 1 mm 2 and there may be a 1 mm space between subarrays.
• membranes or plates available from NUNC, Naperville, Illinois
• physical spacers e.g. a plastic grid molded over the membrane, the grid being similar to the sort of membrane applied to the bottom of multiwell plates, or hydrophobic strips.
• a fixed physical spacer is not preferred for imaging by exposure to flat phosphor-storage screens or x-ray films.
• Labeled probes may be mixed with hybridization buffer and pipetted, preferably by multichannel pipettes, to the subarrays.
• a corresponding plastic, metal or ceramic grid may be firmly pressed to the membrane.
• the volume of the buffer may be reduced to about 1 ml or less per mm 2 .
• concentration of the probes and hybridization conditions used may be as described previously except that the washing buffer may be quickly poured over the array of subarrays to allow fast dilution of probes and thus prevent significant cross-hybridization. For the same reason, a minimal concentration of the probes may be used and hybridization time extended to the maximal practical level.
• Differences in the amount of target DNA per dot may be corrected for by dividing signals of each probe by an average signal for all probes scored on one dot.
• the normalized signals may be scaled, usually from 1-100, to compare data from different experiments.
• several control DNAs may be used to determine an average background signal in those samples which do not contain a full match target.
• homozygotic controls may be used to allow recognition of heterozygotes in the samples.
• Oligonucleotides were either purchased from Genosys Inc. , Houston. Texas or made on an Applied Biosystems 381 A DNA synthesizer. Most of the probes used were not purified by HPLC or gel electrophoresis. For example, probes were designed to have both a single perfectly complementary target in interferon, a Ml 3 clone containing a 921 bp Eco RI-Bgl II human Bl - interferon fragment (Ohno and Tangiuchi, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 74: 4370-4374 (1981)], and at least one target with an end base mismatch in M13 vector itself.
• oligonucleotides End labeling of oligonucleotides was performed as described [Maniatis et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor, New York (1982)] in 10 ml containing T4-polynucleotide kinase (5 units Amersham), ⁇ 32p -ATP (3.3 pM, 10 mCi Amersham 3000 Ci/mM) and oligonucleotide (4 pM, 10 ng). Specific activities of the probes were 2.5-5 X 10 9 cpm/nM.
• Single stranded DNA (2 to 4 ml in 0.5 NaOH, 1.5 M NaCl) was spotted on a Gene Screen membrane wetted with the same solution, the filters were neutralized in 0.05 M Na 2 HPO 4 pH 6.5, baked in an oven at 80°C for 60 min. and UV irradiated for 1 min. Then, the filters were incubated in hybridization solution (0.5 M Na 2 HPO 4 pH 7.2, 7% sodium lauroyl sarcosine for 5 min at room temperature and placed on the surface of a plastic Petri dish.
• hybridization solution 0.5 M Na 2 HPO 4 pH 7.2, 7% sodium lauroyl sarcosine for 5 min at room temperature and placed on the surface of a plastic Petri dish.
• hybridization solution (10 ml, 0.5 M Na 2 HPO 4 pH 7.2, 7% sodium lauroyl sarcosine) with a 32 P end-labeled oligomer probe at 4 nM concentration was placed over 1-6 dots per filter, overlaid with a square piece of polyethylene (approximately 1 X 1 cm.), and incubated in a moist chamber at the indicated temperatures for 3 hr.
• Hybridization was stopped by placing the filter in 6X SSC washing solution for 3 X 5 minute at 0°C to remove unhybridized probe. The filter was either dried, or further washed for the indicated times and temperatures, and autoradiographed.
• the dots were excised from the dried filters after autoradiography [a phosphoimager (Molecular Dynamics. Sunnyvale, California) may be used] placed in liquid scintillation cocktail and counted.
• the uncorrected ratio of cpms for IF and Ml 3 dots is given as D.
• the conditions reported herein allow hybridization with very short oligonucleotides but ensure discriminations between matched and mismatched oligonucleotides that are complementary to and therefore bind to a target nucleic acid.
• Factors which influence the efficient detection of hybridization of specific short sequences based on the degree of discriminations (D) between a perfectly complementary target and an imperfectly complementary target with a single mismatch in the hybrid are defined.
• S, and S 0 are target sequence concentrations at time t and to, respectively.
• (OP) is probe concentration and t is temperamre.
• the rate constant for hybrid formation, k h increases only slightly in the 0°C to 30°C range (Porschke and Eigen, J. Mol. Biol. 62: 361 (1971); Craig et al., J. Mol. Biol. 62: 383 (1971)] .
• Hybrid melting is a first order reaction with respect to hybrid concentration (here replaced by mass due to filter bound state) as shown in:
• H t /H 0 e- kml
• H t and H 0 are hybrid concentrations at times t and t 0 , respectively;
• k m is a rate constant for hybrid melting which is dependent on temperature and salt concentration [Ikuta et al. , Nucl. Acids Res. 15: 797 (1987); Porsclike and Eigen, J. Mol. Biol. 62: 361 (1971); Craig et al., J. Mol. Biol. 62: 303 (1971)].
• the back, melting, or strand dissociation, reaction takes place as well.
• the amount of hybrid formed in time is result of forward and back reactions.
• the equilibrium may be moved towards hybrid formation by increasing probe concentration and/or decreasing temperamre. However, during washing cycles in large volumes of buffer, the melting reaction is dominant and the back reaction hybridization is insignificant, since the probe is absent.
• SOH Short Oligonucleotide Hybridization
• the detergent in these buffers is for obtaining tolerable background with up to 40 nM concentrations of labelled probe.
• Preliminary characterization of the thermal stability of short oligonucleotide hybrids was determined on a prototype octamer with 50% G+C content, i.e. probe of sequence TGCTCATG. The theoretical expectation is that this probe is among the less stable octamers. Its transition enthalpy is similar to those of more stable heptamers or, even to probes 6 nucleotides in length (Bresslauer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83: 3746 (1986)).
• T d the temperamre at which 50% of the hybrid is melted in unit time of a minute is 18°C. The result shows that T d is 15°C lower for the 8 bp hybrid than for an 11 bp duplex [Wallace et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 6: 3543 (1979)].
• an M13 vector was chosen as a system for a practical demonstration of short oligonucleotide hybridization.
• the main aim was to show useful end-mismatch discrimination with a target similar to the ones which will be used in various applications of the method of the invention.
• Oligonucleotide probes for the M13 model were chosen in such a way that the M13 vector itself contains the end mismatched base.
• Vector IF an M13 recombinant containing a 921 bp human interferon gene insert, carries single perfectly matched target. Thus, IF has either the identical or a higher number of mismatched targets in comparison to the Ml 3 vector itself.
• the hybridization signal depends on the amount of target available on the filter for reaction with the probe. A necessary control is to show that the difference in sign intensity is not a reflection of varying amounts of nucleic acid in the two dots.
• Hybridization with a probe that has the same number and kind of targets in both IF and M13 shows that there is an equal amount of DNA in the dots. Since the efficiency of hybrid formation increases with hybrid length, the signal for a duplex having six nucleotides was best detected with a high mass of oligonucleotide target bound to die filter. Due to their lower molecular weight, a larger number of oligonucleotide target molecules can be bound to a given surface area when compared to large molecules of nucleic acid that serves as target.
• the equilibrium yield of hybrid depends oil probe concentration and/or temperature of reaction.
• the signal level for the same amount of target with 4 nM octamer at 13°C is 3 times lower than with a probe concentration of 40 nM, and is decreased 4.5-times by raising the hybridization temperamre to 25°C.
• the M13 system has the advantage of showing the effects of target DNA complexity on the levels of discrimination. For two octamers having either none or five mismatched targets and differing in only one GC pair the observed discriminations were 18.3 and 1.7, respectively.
• Thermal stability curves for very short oligonucleotide hybrids that are 6-8 nucleotides in length are at least 15°C lower than for hybrids 11-12 nucleotides in length [Fig. 1 and Wallace et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 6: 3543-3557 (1979)].
• performing the hybridization reaction at a low temperature and with a very practical 0.4-40 nM concentration of oligonucleotide probe allows the detection of complementary sequence in a known or unknown nucleic acid target.
• an entire set containing 65,535 8-mer probes may be used.
• nucleic acid for this purpose are present in convenient biological samples such as a few microliters of Ml 3 culture, a plasmid prep from 10 ml of bacterial culture or a single colony of bacteria, or less than 1 ml of a standard PCR reaction.
• sequence complexity cannot be ignored.
• the complexity effects are more significant when defining sequence information by short oligonucleotide hybridization for specific, nonrandom sequences, and can be overcome by using an appropriate probe to target length ratio.
• the length ratio is chosen to make unlikely, on statistical grounds, the occurrence of specific sequences which have a number of end-mismatches which would be able to eliminate or falsely invert discrimination. Results suggest the use of oligonucleotides 6, 7, and 8 nucleotides in length on target nucleic acid inserts shorter than 0.6, 2.5, and 10 kb, respectively.
• EXAMPLE 11 DNA Sequencing An array of subarrays allows for efficient sequencing of a small set of samples arrayed in the form of replicated subarrays; For example, 64 samples may be arrayed on a 8 X 8 mm subarray and 16 X 24 subarrays may be replicated on a 15 X 23 cm membrane with 1 mm wide spacers between the subarrays.
• Several replica membranes may be made. For example, probes from a universal set of three thousand seventy-two 7-mers may be divided in thirty-two 96-well plates and labelled by kinasing. Four membranes may be processed in parallel during one hybridization cycle. On each membrane, 384 probes may be scored. All probes may be scored in two hybridization cycles. Hybridization intensities may be scored and the sequence assembled as described below.
• a smaller number of probes may be sufficient if they are intelligently selected on the basis of results of previously scored probes. For example, if probe AAA A AAA is not positive, there is a small chance that any of 8 overlapping probes are positive. If AAAAAAA is positive, then two probes are usually positive.
• the sequencing process in this case consists of first hybridizing a subset of minimally overlapped probes to define positive anchors and then to successively select probes which confirms one of the most likely hypotheses about the order of anchors and size and type of gaps between them. In this second phase, pools of 2-10 probes may be used where each probe is selected to be positive in only one DNA sample which is different from the samples expected to be positive with other probes from the pool.
• the subarray approach allows efficient implementation of probe competition (overlapped probes) or probe cooperation (continuous stacking of probes) in solving branching problems.
• the sequence assembly program determines candidate sequence subfragments (SFs).
• additional information has to be provided (from overlapped sequences of DNA fragments, similar sequences, single pass gel sequences, or from other hybridization or restriction mapping data).
• Primers for single pass gel sequencing through the branch points are identified from the SBH sequence information or from known vector sequences, e.g., the flanking sequences to the vector insert site, and standard Sanger- sequencing reactions are performed on the sample DNA.
• the sequence obtained from this single pass gel sequencing is compared to the Sfs that read into and out of the branch points to identify the order of the Sfs. Further, singe pass gel sequencing may be combined with SBH to de novo sequence or re-sequence a nucleic acid.
• each of 64 samples described in this example there are about 100 branching points, and if 8 samples are analyzed in parallel in each subarray, then at least 800 subarray probings solve all branches. This means that for the 3072 basic probings an additional 800 probings (25%) are employed. More preferably, two probings are used for one branching point. If the subarrays are smaller, less additional probings are used. For example, if subarrays consist of 16 samples, 200 additional probings may be scored (6%). By using 7-mer probes (N 1 . 2 B 7 N 1 . 2 ) and competitive or collaborative branching solving approaches or both, fragments of about 1000 bp fragments may be assembled by about 4000 probings.
• NB 8 N 8-mer probes 4 kb or longer fragments may be assembled with 12,000 probings. Gapped probes, for example, NB 4 NB 3 N or NB 4 NB 4 N may be used to reduce the number of branching points.
• Oligonucleotide probes having an informative length of four to 40 bases are synthesized by standard chemistry and stored in tubes or in multiwell plates. Specific sets of probes comprising one to 10,000 probes are arrayed by deposition or in situ synthesis on separate supports or distinct sections of a larger support. In the last case, sections or subarrays may be separated by physical or hydrophobic barriers. The probe arrays may be prepared by in situ synthesis. A sample DNA of appropriate size is hybridized with one or more specific arrays. Many samples may be interrogated as pools at the same subarrays or independently with different subarrays within one support. Simultaneously with the sample or subsequently, a single labelled probe or a pool of labelled probes is added on each of the subarrays.
• probes If attached and labelled probes hybridize back to back on the complementary target in the sample DNA they are ligated. Occurrence of ligation will be measured by detecting a label from the probe.
• This procedure is a variant of the described DNA analysis process in which DNA samples are not permanently attached to the support. Transient attachment is provided by probes fixed to the support. In this case there is no need for a target DNA arraying process.
• ligation allows detection of longer oligonucleotide sequences by combining short labelled probes with short fixed probes.
• the process has several unique features. Basically, the transient attachment of the target allows its reuse. After ligation occur the target may be released and the label will stay covalently attached to the support. This feature allows cycling the target and production of detectable signal with a small quantity of the target. Under optimal conditions, targets do not need to be amplified, e.g. natural sources of the DNA samples may be directly used for diagnostics and sequencing purposes. Targets may be released by cycling the temperature between efficient hybridization and efficient melting of duplexes. More preferably, there is no cycling. The temperature and concentrations of components may be defined to have an equilibrium between free targets and targets entered in hybrids at about 50:50% level. In this case there is a continuous production of ligated products. For different purposes different equilibrium ratios are optimal.
• An electric field may be used to enhance target use.
• a horizontal field pulsing within each subarray may be employed to provide for faster target sorting.
• the equilibrium is moved toward hybrid formation, and unlabelled probes may be used.
• an appropriate washing (which may be helped by a vertical electric field for restricting movement of the samples) may be performed.
• Several cycles of discriminative hybrid melting, target harvesting by hybridization and ligation and removing of unused targets may be introduced to increase specificity.
• labelled probes are added and vertical electrical pulses may be applied. By increasing temperature, an optimal free and hybridized target ratio may be achieved.
• the vertical electric field prevents diffusion of d e sorted targets.
• the subarrays of fixed probes and sets of labelled probes may be arranged in various ways to allow an efficient and flexible sequencing and diagnostics process. For example, if a short fragment (about 100-500 bp) of a bacterial genome is to be partially or completely sequenced, small arrays of probes (5-30 bases in length) designed on the bases of known sequence may be used. If interrogated with a different pool of 10 labelled probes per subarray, an array of 10 subarrays each having 10 probes, allows checking of 200 bases, assuming that only two bases connected by ligation are scored.
• probes may be displaced by more than one base to cover the longer target with the same number of probes.
• the target may be interrogated directly without amplification or isolation from the rest of DNA in the sample.
• several targets may be analyzed (screened for) in one sample simultaneously. If the obtained results indicate occurrence of a mutation (or a pathogen), additional pools of probes may be used to detect type of the mutation or subtype of pathogen. This is a desirable feature of the process which may be very cost effective in preventive diagnosis where only a small fraction of patients is expected to have an infection or mutation.
• various detection methods may be used, for example, radiolabels, fluorescent labels, enzymes or antibodies
• washes were accomplished at the same or lower temperatures to ensure maximal discrimination by utilizing the greater dissociation rate of mismatch versus matched oligonucleotide/target hybridization. These conditions are shown to be applicable to all sequences although the absolute hybridization yield is shown to be sequence dependent.
• the least destabilizing mismatch that can be postulated is a simple end mismatch, so that the test of sequencing by hybridization is the ability to discriminate perfectly matched oligonucleotide/target duplexes from end-mismatched oligonucleotide/target duplexes.
• the discriminative values for 102 of 105 hybridizing oligonucleotides in a dot blot format were greater than 2 allowing a highly accurate generation of the sequence.
• This system also allowed an analysis of the effect of sequence on hybridization formation and hybridization instability.
• a 100 bp target sequence was generated with data resulting from the hybridization of 105 oligonucleotides probes of known sequence to the target nucleic acid.
• the oligonucleotide probes used included 72 octamer and 21 nonamer oligonucleotides whose sequence was perfectly complementary to the target.
• the set of 93 probes provided consecutive overlapping frames of the target sequence e displaced by one or two bases.
• hybridization was examined for 12 additional probes that contained at least one end mismatch when hybridized to the 100 bp test target sequence. Also tested was the hybridization of twelve probes with target end-mismatched to four other control nucleic acid sequences chosen so that the 12 oligonucleotides formed perfectly matched duplex hybrids with the four control DNAs. Thus, the hybridization of internal mismatched, end-mismatched and perfectly matched duplex pairs of oligonucleotide and target were evaluated for each oligonucleotide used in the experiment.
• the effect of absolute DNA target concentration on the hybridization with the test octamer and nonamer oligonucleotides was determined by defining target DNA concentration by detecting hybridization of a different oligonucleotide probe to a single occurrence non- target site within the co-amplified plasmid DNA.
• H p defines the amount of hybrid duplex formed between a test target and an oligonucleotide probe.
• D Discrimination
• D was defined as the ratio of signal intensities between 1) the dot containing a perfect matched duplex formed between test oligonucleotide and target or control nucleic acid and 2) the dot containing a mismatch duplex formed between the same oligonucleotide and a different site within me target or control nucleic acid.
• Variations in the value of D result from either 1) perturbations in the hybridization efficiency which allows visualization of signal over background, or 2) the type of mismatch found between the test oligonucleotide and the target.
• the D values obtained in this experiment were between 2 and 40 for 102 of the 105 oligonucleotide probes examined. Calculations of D for the group of 102 oligonucleotides as a whole showed the average D was 10.6.
• the sequence which is generated using the algorithm described below is of high fidelity.
• the algorithm tolerates false positive signals from the hybridization dots as is indicated from the fact the sequence generated from the 105 hybridization values, which included four less reliable values, was correct.
• This fidelity in sequencing by hybridization is due to the "all or none" kinetics of short oligonucleotide hybridization and the difference in duplex stability that exists between perfectly matched duplexes and mismatched duplexes.
• the ratio of duplex stability of matched and end-mismatched duplexes increases with decreasing duplex length.
• binding energy decreases with decreasing duplex length resulting in a lower hybridization efficiency.
• results presented in other examples show that oligonucleotides tiiat are 6, 7, or 8 nucleotides can be effectively used to generate reliable sequence on targets that are 0.5 kb (for hexamers) 2 kb (for septamers) and 6kb (for octamers).
• the sequence of long fragments may be overlapped to generate a complete genome sequence.
• Image files are analyzed by an image analysis program, like DOTS program (Drmanac et al., 1993), and scaled and evaluated by statistical functions included, e.g., in SCORES program (Drmanac et al. 1994). From the distribution of the signals an optimal threshold is determined for transforming signal into +/- output. From the position of the label detected, F + P nucleotide sequences from the fragments would be determined by combining the known sequences of the immobilized and labeled probes corresponding to the labeled positions. The complete nucleic acid sequence or sequence subfragments of the original molecule, such as a human chromosome, would then be assembled from the overlapping F + P sequence determined by computational deduction.
• DOTS program Drmanac et al., 1993
• SCORES program Drmanac et al. 1994
• One option is to transform hybridization signals e.g., scores, into +/- output during the sequence assembly process.
• assembly will start with a F + P sequence with a very high score, for example F + P sequence AAAAAATTTTTT.
• Scores of all four possible overlapping probes AAAAATTTTTTA , AAAAATTTTTT , AAAAATTTTTTC and AAAAATTTTTTG and three additional probes that are different at the beginning (TAAAAATTTTTT, ; CAAAAATTTTTT, ; GAAAAATTTTTT, are compared and three outcomes defined: (i) only the starting probe and only one of the four overlapping proves have scores that are significantly positive relatively to the other six probes, in this case the AAAAAATTTTTT sequence will be extended for one nucleotide to the right; (ii) no one probe except the starting probe has a significantly positive score, assembly will stop, e.g.
• the AAAAAATTTTT sequence is at the end of the DNA molecule that is sequenced; (iii) more than one significantly positive probe among the overlapped and/ or other three probes is found; assembly is stopped because of the error or branching (Drmanac et al, 1989).
• the present inventor particularly contemplates that hybridization is to be carried out for up to several hours in high salt concentrations at a low temperature (-2°C to 5°C) because of a relatively low concentration of target DNA that can be provided.
• SSC buffer is used instead of sodium phosphate buffer (Drmanac et al, 1990), which precipitates at 10°C. Washing does not have to be extensive (a few minutes) because of the second step, and can be completely eliminated when the hybridization cycling is used for the sequencing of highly complex DNA samples.
• the same buffer is used for hybridization and washing steps to be able to continue with the second hybridization step with labeled probes.
• each array e.g. a 8 x 8 mm array
• one labeled, probe e.g., a 6-mer
• a 96-tip or 96-pin device would be used, performing this in 42 operations.
• a range of discriminatory conditions could be employed, as previously described in the scientific literature.
• the present inventor particularly contemplates the use of the following conditions. First, after adding labeled probes and incubating for several minutes only (because of the high concentration of added oligonucleotides) at a low temperature (0-5°C), the temperature is increased to 3-10°C, depending on F + P length, and the washing buffer is added. At this time, the washing buffer used is one compatible with any ligation reaction (e.g. , 100 mM salt concentration range). After adding ligase, the temperate is increased again to 15-37°C to allow fast ligation (less than 30 min) and further discrimination of full match and mismatch hybrids.
• cationic detergents are also contemplated for use in Format 3 SBH, as described by Pontius & Berg (1991, incorporated herein by reference). These authors describe the use of two simple cationic detergents, dodecy- and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB and CTAB) in DNA renaturation.
• DTAB and CTAB dodecy- and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide
• DTAB and CTAB are variants of the quaternary amine tetramethylammonium bromide (TMAB) in which one of the methyl groups is replaced by either a 12-carbon (DTAB) or a 16-carbon (CTAB) alkyl group.
• TMAB is the bromide salt of the tetramethylammonium ion, a reagent used in nucleic acid renaturation experiments to decrease the G-C content bias of the melting temperature.
• DTAB and CTAB are similar in structure to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), with the replacement of the negatively charged sulfate of SDS by a positively charged quaternary amine. While SDS is commonly used in hybridization buffers to reduce nonspecific binding and inhibit nucleases, it does not greatly affect the rate of renaturation.
• SDS sodium dodecyl sulfate
• ligase technology is well established within the field of molecular biology.
• Hood and colleagues described a ligase-mediated gene detection technique (Landegren et al, 1988), the methodology of which can be readily adapted for use in Format 3 SBH.
• Wu & Wallace also describe the use of bacteriophage T4 DNA ligase to join two adjacent, short synthetic olignucleotides.
• imaging of the chips is done with different apparati.
• radioactive labels phosphor storage screen technology and Phosphorlmager as a scanner may be used (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA). Chips are put in a cassette and covered by a phosphorous screen. After 1-4 hours of exposure, the screen is scanned and the image file stored at a computer hard disc.
• fluorescent labels CCD cameras and epifluorescent or confocal microscopy are used.
• detection can be performed as described by Eggers et al. (1994, incorporated herein by reference).
• Charge-coupled device (CCD) detectors serve as active solid supports that quantitatively detect and image the distribution of labeled target molecules in probe-based assays. These devices use the inherent characteristics of microelectronics that accommodate highly parallel assays, ultrasensitive detection, high throughput, integrated data acquisition and computation. Eggers et al (1994) describe CCDs for use with probe-based assays, such as Format 3 SBH of the present invention, that allow quantitative assessment within seconds due to the high sensitivity and direct coupling employed.
• the integrated CCD detection approach enables the detection of molecular binding events on chips.
• the detector rapidly generates a two-dimensional pattern that uniquely characterizes the sample.
• distinct biological probes are immobilized directly on the pixels of a CCD or can be attached to a disposable cover slip placed on the CCD surface.
• the sample molecules can be labeled with radioisotope, chemiluminescent or fluorescent tags.
• photons or radioisotope decay products are emitted at the pixel locations where the sample has bound, in the case of Format 3, to two complementary probes.
• the collection efficiency is improved by a factor of at least 10 over lens-based techniques such as those found in conventional CCD cameras. That is, the sample (emitter) is in near contact with the detector (imaging array), and this eliminates conventional imaging optics such as lenses and mirrors.
• radioisotopes When radioisotopes are attached as reporter groups to the target molecules, energetic particles are detected.
• reporter groups that emit particles of varying energies have been successfully utilized with the micro-fabricated detectors, including 32 P, 33 P, 35 S, 14 C and 125 L.
• the choice of the radioisotope reporter can be tailored as required. Once the particular radioisotope label is selected, the detection performance can be predicted by calculating the signal-to-noise ration (SNR), as described by Eggers et al. (1994).
• SNR signal-to-noise ration
• An alternative luminescent detection procedure involves the use of fluorescent or chemiluminescent reporter groups attached to the target molecules.
• the fluorescent labels can be attached covalently or through interaction.
• Fluorescent dyes such as ethidium bromide, with intense absorption bands in the near UV (300-350 nm) range and principal emission bands in the visible (500-650 nm) range, are most suited for the CCD devices employed since the quantum efficiency is several orders of magnitude lower at the excitation wavelength then at the fluorescent signal wavelength.
• the polysilicon CCD gates From the perspective of detecting luminescence, the polysilicon CCD gates have the built-in capacity to filter away the contribution of incident light in the UV range, yet are very sensitive to the visible luminescence generated by the fluorescent reporter groups. Such inherently large discrimination against UV excitation enables large SNRs (greater than 100) to be achieved by d e CCDs as formulated in the incorporated paper by Eggers et al. (1994).
• hybridization matrices may be produced on inexpensive SiO 2 wafers, which are subsequently placed on the surface of the CCD following hybridization and drying. This format is economically efficient since the hybridization of the DNA is conducted on inexpensive disposable SiO 2 wafers, thus allowing reuse of the more expensive CCD detector.
• the probes can be immobilized directly on the CCD to create a dedicated probe matrix.
• a uniform epoxide layer is linked to d e film surface, employing an epoxy-silane reagent and standard SiO 2 modification chemistry.
• Amine-modified oligonucleotide probes are then linked to the SiO 2 surface by means of secondary amine formation with the epoxide ring.
• the resulting linkage provides 17 rotatable bonds of separation between the 3 base of the oligonucleotide and the SiO 2 surface.
• the reaction is performed in 0.1 M KOH and incubated at 37°C for 6 hours.
• Format 3 SBH in general, signals are scored per each of billion points. It would not be necessary to hybridize all arrays, e.g., 4000 5 x 5 mm, at a time and the successive use of smaller number of arrays is possible.
• Cycling hybridizations are one possible method for increasing the hybridization signal. In one cycle, most of the fixed probes will hybridize with DNA fragments with tail sequences non-complementary for labeled probes. By increasing the temperature, those hybrids will be melted. In the next cycle, some of them ( -0.1 %) will hybridize with an appropriate DNA fragment and additional labeled probes will be ligated. In this case, there occurs a discriminative melting of DNA hybrids with mismatches for both probe sets simultaneously.
• thermostable ligase In the cycle hybridization, all components are added before the cycling starts, at the 37°C for T4, or a higher temperature for a thermostable ligase. Then the temperature is decreased to 15-37°C and the chip is incubated for up to 10 minutes, and then the temperature is increased to 37°C or higher for a few minutes and then again reduced. Cycles can be repeated up to 10 times. In one variant, an optimal higher temperature (10-50°C) can be used without cycling and longer ligation reaction can be performed (1-3 hours).
• the procedure described herein allows complex chip manufacturing using standard synthesis and precise spotting of oligonucleotides because a relatively small number of oligonucleotides are necessary. For example, if all 7-mer oligos are synthesized (16384 probes), lists of 256 million 14-mers can be determined.
• One important variant of the invented method is to use more than one differently labeled probe per base array. This can be executed with two purposes in mind; multiplexing to reduce number of separately hybridized arrays; or to determine a list of even longer oligosequences such as 3 x 6 or 3 x 7. In this case, if two labels are used, the specificity of the 3 consecutive oligonucleotides can be almost absolute because positive sites must have enough signals of both labels.
• a further and additional variant is to use chips containing BxNy probes with y being from 1 to 4. Those chips allow sequence reading in different frames. This can also be achieved by using appropriate sets of labeled probes or both F and P probes could have some unspecified end positions (i.e. , some element of terminal degeneracy).
• Universal bases may also be employed as part of a linker to join the probes of defined sequence to the solid support. This makes the probe more available to hybridization and makes the construct more stable. If a probe has 5 bases, one may, e.g. , use 3 universal bases as a linker.
• Sequence assembly may be interrupted where ever a given overlapping (N-l) mer is duplicated two or more times. Then either of the two N-mers differing in the last nucleotide may be used in extending the sequence. This branching point limits unambiguous assembly of sequence.
• Reassembling the sequence of known oligonucleotides that hybridize to the target nucleic acid to generate the complete sequence of the target nucleic acid may not be accomplished in some cases. This is because some information may be lost if the target nucleic acid is not in fragments of appropriate size in relation to the size of oligonucleotide tiiat is used for hybridizing. The quantity of information lost is proportional to the length of a target being sequenced. However, if sufficiently short targets are used, their sequence msy be unambiguously determined.
• sequence subfragment results if any part of the sequence of a target nucleic acid starts and ends with an (N-l)mer that is repeated two or more times within the target sequence.
• subfragments are sequences generated between two points of branching in the process of assembly of the sequences in the method of the invention.
• the sum of all subfragments is longer than the actual target nucleic acid because of overlapping short ends.
• subfragments may not be assembled in a linear order without additional information since they have shared (N-l)mers at their ends and starts. Different numbers of subfragments are obtained for each nucleic acid target depending on the number of its repeated (N-l) mers. The number depends on the value of N-l and the length of the target.
• P (K, L f ) represents the probability of an N-mer occurring K-times on a fragment L f base long.
• the number of subfragments increases with the increase of lengths of fragments for a given length of probe. Obtained subfragments may not be uniquely ordered among themselves. Although not complete, this information is very useful for comparative sequence analysis and the recognition of functional sequence characteristics. This type of information may be called partial sequence. Another way of obtaining partial sequence is the use of only a subset of oligonucleotide probes of a given length.
• This number consists of 700 random 7 kb clones (basic library), 1250 pools of 20 clones of 500 bp (subfragments ordering library) and 150 clones from jumping (or similar) library.
• the developed algorithm regenerates sequence using hybridization data of these described samples.
• This example describes an algorithm for generation of a long sequence written in a four letter alphabet from constituent k-tuple words in a minimal number of separate, randomly defined fragments of a starting nucleic acid sequence where K is the length of an oligonucleotide probe.
• the algorithm is primarily intended for use in the sequencing by hybridization (SBH) process.
• the algorithm is based on subfragments (SF), informative fragments (IF) and the possibility of using pools of physical nucleic sequences for defining informative fragments.
• subfragments may be caused by branch points in the assembly process resulting from the repetition of a K-l oligomer sequence in a target nucleic acid.
• Subfragments are sequence fragments found between any two repetitive words of the length K-l that occur in a sequence. Multiple occurrences of K-l words are the cause of interruption of ordering the overlap of K-words in the process of sequence generation. Interruption leads to a sequence remaining in the form of subfragments. Thus, the unambiguous segments between branching points whose order is not uniquely determined are called sequence subfragments.
• Informative fragments are defined as fragments of a sequence that are determined by the nearest ends of overlapped physical sequence fragments.
• a certain number of physical fragments may be pooled without losing the possibility of defimng informative fragments.
• the total length of randomly pooled fragments depends on the length of k-tuples that are used in the sequencing process.
• the algorithm consists of two main units.
• the first part is used for generation of subfragments from the set of k-tuples contained in a sequence.
• Subfragments may be generated within the coding region of physical nucleic acid sequence of certain sizes, or within the informative fragments defined within long nucleic acid sequences. Both types of fragments are members of the basic library.
• This algorithm does not describe the determination of the content of the k-tuples of the informative fragments of the basic library, i.e. the step of preparation of informative fragments to be used in the sequence generation process.
• the second part of the algorithm determines the linear order of obtained subfragments with the purpose of regenerating the complete sequence of the nucleic acid fragments of the basic library.
• a second, ordering library is used, made of randomly pooled fragments of the starting sequence.
• the algorithm does not include the step of combining sequences of basic fragments to regenerate an entire, megabase plus sequence. This may be accomplished using the link-up of fragments of the basic library which is a prerequisite for informative fragment generation. Alternatively, it may be accomplished after generation of sequences of fragments of the basic library by this algorithm, using search for their overlap, based on the presence of common end-sequences.
• the algorithm requires neither knowledge of the number of appearances of a given k-tuple in a nucleic acid sequence of the basic and ordering libraries, nor does it require the information of which k-tuple words are present on the ends of a fragment.
• the algorithm operates with the mixed content of k-tuples of various length.
• the concept of the algorithm enables operations with the k-tuple sets that contain false positive and false negative k- tuples. Only in specific cases does the content of the false k-tuples primarily influence the completeness and correctness of the generated sequence.
• the algorithm may be used for optimization of parameters in simulation experiments, as well as for sequence generation in the actual SBH experiments e.g. generation of the genomic DNA sequence.
• the choice of the oligonucleotide probes (k-tuples) for practical and convenient fragments and/or the choice of the optimal lengths and the number of fragments for the defined probes are especially important.
• This part of the algorithm has a central role in the process of the generation of the sequence from the content of k-tuples. It is based on the unique ordering of k-tuples by means of maximal overlap. The main obstacles in sequence generation are specific repeated sequences and false positive and/or negative k-tuples. The aim of this part of the algorithm is to obtain the minimal number of the longest possible subfragments, with correct sequence.
• This part of the algorithm consists of one basic, and several control steps.
• a two-stage process is necessary since certain information can be used only after generation of all primary subfragments.
• the main problem of sequence generation is obtaining a repeated sequence from word contents that by definition do not carry information on the number of occurrences of the particular k-tuples.
• the concept of the entire algorithm depends on the basis on which this problem is solved.
• pSFs contain an excess of sequences and in the second case, they contain a deficit of sequences.
• the first approach requires elimination of the excess sequences generated, and the second requires permitting multiple use of some of the subfragments in the process of the final assembling of the sequence.
• k-tuple X is unambiguously maximally overlapped with k-tuple Y if and only if, the rightmost k-l end of k-tuple X is present only on the leftmost end of k-tuple Y.
• This rule allows the generation of repetitive sequences and the formation of surplus sequences.
• k-tuple X is unambiguously maximally overlapped with k-tuple Y if and only if, the rightmost K-l end of k-tuple X is present only on the leftmost end of k-tuple Y and if the leftmost K-l end of k- tuple Y is not present on the rightmost end of any other k-tuple.
• the algorithm based on the stricter rule is simpler, and is described herein.
• the process of elongation of a given subfragment is stopped when the right k-l end of the last k-tuple included is not present on the left end of any k-tuple or is present on two or more k-tuples. If it is present on only one k-tuple the second part of the rule is tested. If in addition there is a k-tuple which differs from the previously included one, the assembly of the given subfragment is terminated only on the first leftmost position. If this additional k-tuple does not exist, the conditions are met for unique k-l overlap and a given subfragment is extended to the right by one element.
• a supplementary one is used to allow the usage of k-tuples of different lengths.
• the maximal overlap is the length of k-l of the shorter k-tuple of the overlapping pair.
• Generation of the pSFs is performed starting from the first k-tuple from the file in which k-tuples are displayed randomly and independently from their order in a nucleic acid sequence.
• the first k-tuple in the file is not necessarily on the beginning of the sequence, nor on the start of the particular subfragment.
• the process of subfragment generation is performed by ordering the k-tuples by means of unique overlap, which is defined by the described rule. Each used k-tuple is erased from the file.
• the building of subfragment is terminated and the buildup of another pSF is started. Since generation of a majority of subfragments does not begin from their actual starts, the formed pSF are added to the k-tuple file and are considered as a longer k-tuple. Another possibility is to form subfragments going in both directions from the starting k- tuple. The process ends when further overlap, i.e. the extension of any of the subfragments, is not possible.
• the pSFs can be divided in three groups: 1) Subfragments of the maximal length and correct sequence in cases of exact k-tuple set; 2) short subfragments, formed due to the used of the maximal and unambiguous overlap rule on the incomplete set, and/or the set with some false positive k-tuples; and 3) pSFs of an incorrect sequence.
• the incompleteness of the set in 2) is caused by false negative results of a hybridization experiment, as well as by using an incorrect set of k-tuples. These are formed due to the false positive and false negative k-tuples and can be : a) misconnected subfragments; b) subfragments with the wrong end; and c) false positive k-tuples which appears as false minimal subfragments.
• pSFs are generated because of the impossibility of maximal overlapping.
• pSFs are generated because of the impossibility of unambiguous overlapping.
• pSFs are generated, and one of these pSFs contains the wrong k-tuple at the relevant end.
• the process of correcting subfragments with errors in sequence and the linking of unambiguously connected pSF is performed after subfragment generation and in the process of subfragment ordering.
• the first step which consists of cutting the misconnected pSFs and obtaining the final subfragments by unambiguous connection of pSFs is described below.
• recognition of the misconnected subfragments is more strictly defined when a repeated sequence does not appear at the end of the fragment. In this situation, one can detect further two subfragments, one of which contains on its leftmost, and the other on its rightmost end k-2 sequences which are also present in the misconnected subfragment. When the repeated sequence is on the end of the fragment, there is only one subfragment which contains k-2 sequence causing the mistake in subfragment formation on its leftmost or rightmost end.
• misconnected subframents by their cutting is performed according to the common rule: If the leftmost or rightmost sequence of the length of k-2 of any subfragments is present in any other subfragment, the subfragment is to be cut into two subfragments, each of them containing k-2 sequence.
• This rule does not cover rarer situations of a repeated end when there are more than one false negative k-tuple on the point of repeated k-l sequence.
• Misconnected subfragments of this kind can be recognized by using the information from the overlapped fragments, or informative fragments of both the basic and ordering libraries. In addition, the misconnected subfragment will remain when two or more false negative k-tuples occur on both positions which contain the identical k-l sequence.
• a fragment beside at least two identical k-l sequences, contains any k-2 sequence from k-l or a fragment contains k-2 sequence repeated at least twice and at least one false negative k-tuple containing given k-2 sequence in the middle, etc.
• the aim of this part of the algorithm is to reduce the number of pSFs to a minimal number of longer subfragments with correct sequence.
• the generation of unique longer subfragments or a complete sequence is possible in two situations.
• the first situation concerns the specific order of repeated k-l words. There are cases in which some or all maximally extended pSFs (the first group of pSFs) can be uniquely ordered.
• fragment S-Rl-a-R2-b-Rl-c-R2-E where S and E are the start and end of a fragment, a, b , and c are different sequences specific to respective subfragments and Rl and R2 are two k-l sequences that are tandemly repeated, five subfragments are generated (S-Rl, Rl-a-R2, R2-b-Rl, R1-C-R2, and R-E). They may be ordered in two ways; the original sequence above or S-Rl- c-R-b-Rl-a-R-E. In contrast, in a fragment with the same number and types of repeated sequences but ordered differently, i.e.
• the solution for both pSF groups consists of two parts.
• the merging of subfragments that can be uniquely connected is accomplished in the second step.
• the rule for connection is: two subfragments may be unambiguously connected if, and only if, the overlapping sequence at the relevant end or start of two subfragments is not present at the start and/or end of any other subfragment.
• the short subfragments that are obtained are of two kinds. In the common case, these subfragments may be unambiguously connected among themselves because of the distribution of repeated k-l sequences. This may be done after the process of generation of pSFs and is a good example of the necessity for two steps in the process of pSF generation.
• short pSFs are obtained on the sites of nonrepeated k-l sequences. Considering false positive k-tuples, a k-tuple may contain more than one wrong base (or containing one wrong base somewhere in the middle), as well as k-tuple on the end.
• the k-tuples of the former kind represent wrong pSFs with length equal to k- tuple length.
• the aim of merging pSF part of the algorithm is the reduction of the number of pSFs to the minimal number of longer subfragments with the correct sequence. All k-tuple subfragments that do not have an overlap on either end, of the length of longer than k-a on one, and longer than k-b on the other end, are eliminated to enable the maximal number of connections. In this way, the majority of false positive k-tuples are discarded.
• the rule for connection is: two subfragments can be unambiguously connected if, and only if the overlapping sequence of the relevant end or start of two subfragments is not present on the start and/or end of any other subfragment.
• the exception is a subfragment with the identical beginning and end. In that case connection is permitted, provided that there is another subfragment with the same end present in the file.
• the main problem here is of precise definition of overlapping sequence. The presence of at least two specific false negative k- tuples on the points of repetition of k-l or k-2 sequences, as well as combining of the false positive and false negative k-tuples may destroy or "mask" some overlapping sequences and can produce an unambiguous, but wrong connection of pSFs.
• connection is not permitted on the end-sequences shorter than k-2, and in the presence of an extra overlapping sequence longer than k-4.
• the overlapping sequences are defined from the end of the pSFs, or omitting one, or few last bases.
• some subfragments with the wrong end can survive, some false positive k-tuples (as minimal subfragments) can remain, or the erroneous connection can take place.
• the process of ordering of subfragments is similar to the process of their generation. If one considers subfragments as longer k-tuples, ordering is performed by their unambiguous connection via overlapping ends.
• the informational basis for unambiguous connection is the division of subfragments generated in fragments of the basic library into groups representing segments of those fragments.
• the method is analogous to the biochemical solution of this problem based on hybridization with longer oligonucleotides with relevant connecting sequence.
• the connecting sequences are generated as subfragments using the k-tuple sets of the appropriate segments of basic library fragments.
• Relevant segments are defined by the fragments of the ordering library that overlap with the respective fragments of the basic library.
• the shortest segments are informative fragments of the ordering library.
• the longer ones are several neighboring informative fragments or total overlapping portions of fragments corresponding of the ordering and basic libraries.
• fragments of the ordering library are randomly pooled, and the unique k- tuple content is determined.
• Primary segments are defined as significant intersections and differences of k-tuple contents of a given fragment of the basic library with the k-tuple contents of the pools of the ordering library.
• Secondary (shorter) segments are defined as intersections and differences of the k-tuple contents of the primary segments.
• the set of false negatives from the original sequences are enlarged for false positives from intersections and the set of false positives for those k-tuples which are not included in the intersection by error, i.e. are false negative in the intersection. If the starting sequences contain 10% false negative data, the primary and secondary intersections will contain 19% and 28% false negative k- tuples, respectively. On the other hand, a mathematical expectation of 77 false positives may be predicted if the basic fragment and the pools have lengths of 500 bp and 10,000 bp, respectively. However, there is a possibility of recovering most of the "lost" k-tuples and of eliminating most of the false positive k-tuples.
• a set of common k-tuples is defined for each pair (a basic fragment) X (a pool of ordering library). If the number of k-tuples in the set is significant it is enlarged with the false negatives according to the described rule.
• the primary difference set is obtained by subtracting from a given basic fragment the obtained intersection set.
• the false negative k-tuples are appended to the difference set by borrowing from the intersection set according to the described rule and, at the same time, removed from the intersection set as false positive k-tuples.
• this difference can represent the two separate segments which somewhat reduces its utility in further steps.
• the primary segments are all generated intersections and differences of pairs (a basic fragment) X (a pool of ordering library) containing the significant number of k-mples.
• K-tuple sets of secondary segments are obtained by comparison of k-tuple sets of all possible pairs of primary segments. The two differences are defined from each pair which produces the intersection with the significant number of k-mples. The majority of available information from overlapped fragments is recovered in this step so that there is little to be gained from the third round of forming intersections, and differences.
• the method of connection of subfragments consists of sequentially determining the correctly linked pairs of subfragments among the subfragments from a given basic library fragment which have some overlapped ends.
• 4 relevant subfragments two of which contain the same beginning and two having the same end, there are 4 different pairs of subfragments that can be connected.
• 2 are correct and 2 are wrong.
• the length and the position of the connecting sequence are chosen to avoid interference with sequences which occur by chance. They are k+2 or longer, and include at least one element 2 beside overlapping sequence in both subfragments of a given pair.
• the connection is permitted only if the two connecting sequences are found and the remaining two do not exist.
• the two linked subfragments replace former subfragments in the file and the process is cyclically repeated.
• misconnected subfragments generated in the processes of building pSFs and merging pSFs into longer subfragments is based on testing whether the sequences of subfragments from a given basic fragment exist in the sequences of subfragments generated in the segments for the fragment. The sequences from an incorrectly connected position will not be found indicating the misconnected subfragments.
• P(sf,s) (Ck-F)/Lsf, where Lsf is the length of subfragment, Ck is the number of common k-tuples for a given subfragment/segment pair, and F is the parameter that includes relations between lengths of k-tuples, fragments of basic library, the size of the pool, and the error percentage.
• Subfragments attributed to a particular segment are treated as redundant short pSFs and are submitted to a process of unambiguous connection.
• the definition of unambiguous connection is slightly different in this case, since it is based on a probability that subfragments with overlapping end(s) belong to the segment considered.
• the accuracy of unambiguous connection is controlled by following the connection of these subfragments in other segments. After the connection in different segments, all of the obtained subfragments are merged together, shorter subfragments included within longer ones are eliminated, and the remaining ones are submitted to the ordinary connecting process. If the sequence is not regenerated completely, the process of partition and connection of subfragments is repeated with the same or less severe criterions of probability of belonging to the particular segment, followed by unambiguous connection.
• the testing of the algorithm was performed on the simulated data in two experiments.
• the sequence of 50 informative fragments was regenerated with the 100% correct data set (over 20,000 bp), and 26 informative fragments (about 10,000 bp) with 10% false k-tuples (5% positive and 5% negative ones).
• all subfragments were correct and in only one out of 50 informative fragments the sequence was not completely regenerated but remained in the form of 5 subfragments.
• the analysis of positions of overlapped fragments of ordering library has shown that they lack the information for the unique ordering of the 5 subfragments.
• the subfragments may be connected in two ways based on overlapping ends, 1-2-3-4-5 and 1-4-3-2-5. The only difference is the exchange of positions of subfragments 2 and 4. Since subfragments 2, 3, and 4 are relatively short (total of about 100 bp), the relatively greater chance existed, and occurred in this case, that none of the fragments of ordering library started or ended in the subfragment 3 region.
• Elongation of the end of the sequence caused by false positive k-tuples is the special case of "insertions", since the end of the sequence can be considered as the endless linear array of false negative k-tuples.
• An insertion, or insertion in place of a deletion can arise as a result of specific combinations of false positive and false negative k-tuples. In the first case, the number of consecutive false negatives is smaller than k. Both cases require several overlapping false positive k-tuples.
• a sample nucleic acid is sequenced by exposing the sample to a support-bound probe of known sequence and a labeled probe or probes in solution.
• the probes ligase is introduced into the mixture of probes and sample, such that, wherever a support has a bound probe and a labeled probe hybridized back to back along the sample, the two probes will be chemically linked by the action of the ligase. After washing, only chemically linked support-bound and labeled probes are detected by the presence of the labeled probe.
• a portion of the sequence of the sample may be determined by the presence of a label at a point in an array on a Format with a sample of three substrate. And not chances not working are maximally overlapping sequences of all of the ligated probe pairs, the sequence of the sample may be reconstructed. Not of the sample to be sequenced may be a nucleic acid fragment or oligonucleotide of ten base pairs ("bp"). The sample is preferably four to one thousand bases in length.
• the length of the probe is a fragment less than ten bases in length, and, preferably, is between four and nine bases in length.
• arrays of support-bound probes may include all oligonucleotides of a given length or may include only oligonucleotides selected for a particular test. Where all oligonucleotides of a given length are used, the number of central oligonucleotides may be calculated by 4 N where N is the length of the probe.
• RNAse treatment may utilize RNAse A an endoribonuclease that specifically attacks single-stranded RNA 3 to pyrimidine residues and cleaves the phosphate linkage to the adjacent nucleotide.
• the end products are pyrimidine 3 phosphates and oligonucleotides with terminal pyrimidine 3 phosphates.
• RNAse A works in the absence of cofactors and divalent cations.
• RNAse-containing buffer any appropriate RNAse-containing buffer, as described by Sambrook et al. (1989; incorporated herein by reference). The use of 30-50 ul of RNAse-containing buffer per 8 x 8 mm or 9 x 9 mm array at 37°C for between 10 and 60 minutes is appropriate. One would then wash with hybridization buffer.
• uracil base as described by Craig et al. (1989), incorporated herein by reference, in specific embodiments. Destruction of the ligated probe combination, to yield a re-usable chip, would be achieved by digestion with t ⁇ e E. Coli repair enzyme, uracil-DNA gly cosy lase which removes uracil from DNA.
• the selective cleavage of a phosphoamide bond involves contact with 15% CH 3 COOH for 5 min at 95°C.
• the selective cleavage of a pyrophosphate bond involves contact with a pyridine- water mixture (9: 1) and freshly distilled (CF 3 CO) 2 O.
• the goal may be to discover whether selected, known mutations occur in a DNA segment.
• Less than 12 probes may suffice for this purpose, for example, 5 probes positive for one allele, 5 positive for the other, and 2 negative for both.
• large numbers of samples may be analyzed in parallel. For example, with 12 probes in 3 hybridization cycles, 96 different genomic loci or gene segments from 64 patient may be analyzed on one 6 x 9 in membrane containing 12 x 24 subarrays each with 64 dots representing the same DNA segment from 64 patients.
• samples may be prepared in sixty-four 96-well plates. Each plate may represent one patient, and each well may represent one of the DNA segments to be analyzed. The samples from 64 plates may be spotted in four replicas as four quarters of the same membrane.
• a set of 12 probes may be selected by single channel pipetting or by a single pin transferring device (or by an array of individually-controlled pipets or pins) for each of the 96 segments, and the selected probes may be arrayed in twelve 96-well plates. Probes may be labelled, if they are not prelabelled, and then probes from four plates may be mixed with hybridization buffer and added to the subarrays preferentially by a 96-channel pipeting device. After one hybridization cycle it is possible to strip off previously-applied probes by incubating the membrane at 37° to 55°C in the preferably undiluted hybridization or washing buffer.
• probes positive for one allele are positive and probes positive for the other allele are negative may be used to determine which of the two alleles is present.
• some level (about 10%) of errors in hybridization of each probe may be tolerated.
• An incomplete set of probes may be used for scoring most of the alleles, especially if the smaller redundancy is sufficient, e.g. one or two probes which prove the presence or absence in a sample of one of the two alleles. For example, with a set of four thousand 8-mers there is a 91 % chance of finding at least one positive probe for one of the two alleles for a randomly selected locus.
• the incomplete set of probes may be optimized to reflect G+C content and other biases in the analyzed samples.
• genes may be amplified in an appropriate number of segments. For each segment, a set of probes (about one probe per 2-4 bases) may be selected and hybridized. These probes may identify whether there is a mutation anywhere in the analyzed segments.
• Segments (i.e., subarrays which contain these segments) where one or more mutated sites are detected may be hybridized with additional probes to find the exact sequence at the mutated sites. If a DNA sample is tested by every second 6-mer, and a mutation is localized at the position that is surrounded by positively hybridized probes TGC AAA and TATTCC and covered by three negative probes: CAAAAC, AAACTA and ACTATT, the mutated nucleotides must be A and/or C occurring in the normal sequence at that position. They may be changed by a single base mutation, or by a one or two nucleotide deletion and/or insertion between bases AA, AC or CT.
• One approach is to select a probe that extends the positively hybridized probe TGCAAA for one nucleotide to the right, and which extends the probe TATTCC one nucleotide to the left.
• these 8 probes GCAAAA, GCAAAT, GCAAAC, GCAAAG and ATATTC, TTATTC, CTATTC, GTATTC
• two questionable nucleotides are determined.
• A is found to be mutated to G.
• DNA fragments as long as 5-20 kb may be sequenced without subcloning.
• the speed of sequencing readily may be about 10 million bp/day /hybridization instrument.
• This performance allows for resequencing a large fraction of human genes or the human genome repeatedly from scientifically or medically interesting individuals. To resequence 50% of the human genes, about 100 million bp is checked. That may be done in a relatively short period of time at an affordable cost.
• This enormous resequencing capability may be used in several ways to identify mutations and/or genes that encode for disorders or any other traits. Basically, mRNAs (which may be converted into cDNAs) from particular tissues or genomic DNA of patients with particular disorders may be used as starting materials.
• genes or genomic fragments of appropriate length may be prepared either by cloning procedures or by in vitro amplification procedures (for example by PCR). If cloning is used, the minimal set of clones to be analyzed may be selected from the libraries before sequencing. That may be done efficiently by hybridization of a small number of probes, especially if a small number of clones longer than 5 kb is to be sorted. Cloning may increase the amount of hybridization data about two times, but does not require tens of thousands of PCR primers. In one variant of the procedure, gene or genomic fragments may be prepared by restriction cutting with enzymes like Hga I which cuts DNA in following way: GACGC(N5')/CTGCG(N10').
• Protruding ends of five bases are different for different fragments.
• One enzyme produces appropriate fragments for a certain number of genes.
• each gene of interest may be excised appropriately.
• the cut DNA is fractionated by size.
• DNA fragments prepared in this way (and optionally treated with Exonuclease III which individually removes nucleotides from the 3' end and increases length and specificity of the ends) may be dispensed in the tubes or in multiwell plates. From a relatively small set of DNA adapters with a common portion and a variable protruding end of appropriate length, a pair of adapters may be selected for every gene fragment that needs to be amplified.
• adapters are ligated and then PCR is performed by universal primers. From 1000 adapters, a million pairs may be generated, thus a million different fragments may be specifically amplified in the identical conditions with a universal pair of primers complementary to the common end of the adapters.
• the mutated gene may be responsible for the disorder.
• functional allelic variations of particular genes could be associated by specific traits.
• This approach may be used to eliminate the need for very expensive genetic mapping on extensive pedigrees and has special value when there is no such genetic data or material.
• SNUPs single nucleotide polymorphisms
• SNUPs may be scored in every individual from relevant families or populations by amplifying markers and arraying them in the form of the array of subarrays. Subarrays contain the same marker amplified from the analyzed individuals. For each marker, as in the diagnostics of known mutations, a set of 6 or less probes positive for one allele and 6 or less probes positive for the other allele may be selected and scored. From the significant association of one or a group of the markers with the disorder, chromosomal position of the responsible gene(s) may be determined. Because of the high throughput and low cost, thousands of markers may be scored for thousands of individuals. This amount of data allows localization of a gene at a resolution level of less than one million bp as well as localization of genes involved in poly genie diseases. Localized genes may be identified by sequencing particular regions from relevant normal and affected individuals to score a mutation(s).
• PCR is preferred for amplification of markers from genomic DNA.
• Each of the markers require a specific pair of primers.
• the existing markers may be convertible or new markers may be defined which may be prepared by cutting genomic DNA by Hga I type restriction enzymes, and by ligation with a pair of adapters.
• SNUP markers can be amplified or spotted as pools to reduce the number of independent amplification reactions. In this case, more probes are scored per one sample. When 4 markers are pooled and spotted on 12 replica membranes, then 48 probes (12 per marker) may be scored in 4 cycles.
• DNA fragments generated by restriction cutting, cloning or in vitro amplification (e.g. PCR) frequently may be identified in a experiment. Identification may be performed by verifying the presence of a DNA band of specific size on gel electrophoresis. Alternatively, a specific oligonucleotide may be prepared and used to verify a DNA sample in question by hybridization. The procedure developed here allows for more efficient identification of a large number of samples without preparing a specific oligonucleotide for each fragment. A set of positive and negative probes may be selected from the universal set for each fragment on the basis of the known sequences. Probes that are selected to be positive usually are able to form one or a few overlapping groups and negative probes are spread over the whole insert.
• This technology may be used for identification of STSs in the process of their mapping on the YAC clones.
• Each of the STSs may be tested on about 100 YAC clones or pools of YAC clones. DNAs from these 100 reactions possibly are spotted in one subarray. Different STSs may represent consecutive subarrays.
• a signature may be generated for each of the DNA samples, which signature proves or disproves existence of the particular STS in the given YAC clone with necessary confidence.
• STSs may be amplified simultaneously in a reaction or PCR samples may be mixed, respectively. In this case more probes have to be scored per one dot.
• the pooling of STSs is independent of pooling YACs and may be used on single YACs or pools of YACs. This scheme is especially attractive when several probes labelled with different colors are hybridized together.
• the amount of DNA may be estimated using intensities of the hybridization of several separate probes or one or more pools of probes. By comparing obtained intensities with intensities for control samples having a known amount of DNA, the quantity of DNA in all spotted samples is determined simultaneously. Because only a few probes are necessary for identification of a DNA fragment, and there are N possible probes that may be used for DNA N bases long, this application does not require a large set of probes to be sufficient for identification of any DNA segment. From one thousand 8-mers, on average about 30 full matching probes may be selected for a 1000 bp fragment.
• DNA-based tests for the detection of viral, bacterial, fungal and other parasitic organisms in patients are usually more reliable and less expensive than alternatives.
• the major advantage of DNA tests is to be able to identify specific strains and mutants, and eventually be able to apply more effective treatment. Two applications are described below.
• the presence of 12 known antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial infections may be tested by amplifying these genes.
• the amplified products from 128 patients may be spotted in two subarrays and 24 subarrays for 12 genes may then be repeated four times on a 8 x 12 cm membrane.
• 12 probes may be selected for positive and negative scoring. Hybridizations may be performed in 3 cycles. For these tests, a much smaller set of probes is most likely to be universal. For example, from a set of one thousand 8-mers, on average 30 probes are positive in 1000 bp fragments, and 10 positive probes are usually sufficient for a highly reliable identification. As described in Example
• DNA may be determined.
• the amount of amplified gene may be used as an indicator of the level of infection.
• Another example involves possible sequencing of one gene or the whole genome of an HIV virus. Because of rapid diversification, the virus poses many difficulties for selection of an optimal therapy.
• DNA fragments may be amplified from isolated viruses from up to 64 patients and resequenced by the described procedure. On the basis of the obtained sequence the optimal therapy may be selected. If there is a mixture of two virus types of which one has the basic sequence (similar to the case of heterozygotes), the mutant may be identified by quantitative comparisons of its hybridization scores with scores of other samples, especially control samples containing the basic virus type only.
• Scores twice as small may be obtained for three to four probes that cover the site mutated in one of the two virus types present in the sample (see above).
• Sequence polymorphisms make an individual genomic DNA unique. This permits analysis of blood or other body fluids or tissues from a crime scene and comparison with samples from criminal suspects. A sufficient number of polymorphic sites are scored to produce a unique signature of a sample. SBH may easily score single nucleotide polymorphisms to produce such signatures.
• a set of DNA fragments (10-1000) may be amplified from samples and suspects.
• DNAs from samples and suspects representing one fragment are spotted in one or several subarrays and each subarray may be replicated 4 times. In three cycles, 12 probes may determine the presence of allele A or B in each of the samples, including suspects, for each DNA locus. Matching the patterns of samples and suspects may lead to discovery of the suspect responsible for the crime.
• DNA may be prepared and polymorphic loci amplified from the child and adults; patterns of A or B alleles may be determined by hybridization for each.
• Measuring the frequency of allelic variations on a significant number of loci permits development of different types of conclusions, such as conclusions regarding the impact of the environment on the genotypes, history and evolution of a population or its susceptibility to diseases or extinction, and others. These assessments may be performed by testing specific known alleles or by full resequencing of some loci to be able to define de novo mutations which may reveal fine variations or presence of mutagens in the environment.
• DNA sequences such as the genes for ribosomal RNAs or genes for highly conservative proteins.
• DNA may be prepared from the environment and particular genes amplified using primers corresponding to conservative sequences.
• DNA fragments may be cloned preferentially in a plasmid vector (or diluted to the level of one molecule per well in multiwell plates and than amplified in vitro). Clones prepared this way may be resequenced as described above. Two types of information are obtained. First of all, a catalogue of different species may be defined as well as the density of the individuals for each species. Another segment of information may be used to measure the influence of ecological factors or pollution on the ecosystem. It may reveal whether some species are eradicated or whether the abundance ratios among species is altered due to the pollution. The method also is applicable for sequencing DNAs from fossils.
• DNA or RNA species may be detected and quantified by employing a probe pair including an unlabeled probe fixed to a substrate and a labeled probe in a solution.
• the species may be detected and quantified by exposure to the unlabeled probe in the presence of the labeled probe and ligase.
• the formation of an extended probe by ligation of the labeled and unlabeled probe on the sample nucleic acid backbone is indicative of the presence of the species to be detected.
• the presence of label at a specific point in the array on the substrate after removing unligated labeled probe indicates the presence of a sample species while the quantity of label indicates the expression level of the species.
• one or more unlabeled probes may be arrayed on a substrate as first members of pairs with one or more labeled probes to be introduced in solution.
• multiplexing of the label on the array may be carried out by using dyes which fluoresce at distinguishable wavelengths.
• a mixture of cDNAs applied to an array with pairs of labeled and unlabeled probes specific for species to be identified may be examined for the presence of and expression level of cDNA species.
• this approach may be carried out to sequence portions of cDNAs by selecting pairs of unlabeled and labeled probes pairs comprising sequences which overlap along the sequence of a cDNA to be detected.
• Probes may be selected to detect the presence and quantity of particular pathogenic organisms genome by including in the composition selected probe pairs which appear in combination only in target pathogenic genome organisms. Thus, while no single probe pair may necessarily be specific for the pathogenic organism genome, the combination of pairs is. Similarly, in detecting or sequencing cDNAs, it might occur that a particular probe is not be specific for a cDNA or other type of species. Nevertheless, the presence and quantity of a particular species may be determined by a result wherein a combination of selected probes situated at distinct array locations is indicative of the presence of a particular species.
• An infectious agent with about lOkb or more of DNA may be detected using a support-bound detection chip without the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or other target amplification procedures.
• PCR polymerase chain reaction
• the genomes of infectious agents including bacteria and viruses are assayed by amplification of a single target nucleotide sequence through PCR and detection of the presence of target by hybridization of a labelled probe specific for the target sequence. Because such an assay is specific for only a single target sequence it therefore is necessary to amplify the gene by methods such as PCR to provide sufficient target to provide a detectable signal.
• an improved method of detecting nucleotide sequences characteristic of infectious agents through a Format 3-type reaction wherein a solid phase detection chip is prepared which comprises an array of multiple different immobilized oligonucleotide probes specific for the infectious agent of interest.
• a single dot comprising a mixture of many unlabeled probes complementary to the target nucleic acid concentrates the label specific to a species at one location thereby improving sensitivity over diffuse or single probe labeling.
• Such multiple probes may be of overlapping sequences of the target nucleotide sequence but may also be non-overlapping sequences as well as non-adjacent.
• Such probes preferably have a length of about 5 to 12 nucleotides.
• a nucleic acid sample exposed to the probe array and target sequences present in the sample will hybridize with the multiple immobilized probes.
• a pool of multiple labeled probes selected to specifically bind to the target sequences adjacent to the immobilized probes is then applied with the sample to an array of unlabeled oligonucleotide probe mixtures.
• Ligase enzyme is then applied to the chip to ligate the adjacent probes on the sample.
• the detection chip is then washed to remove unhybridized and unligated probe and sample nucleic acids and the presence of sample nucleic acid may be determined by the presence or absence of label. This method provides reliable sample detection with about a 1000-fold reduction of molarity of the sample agent.
• the signal of the labelled probes may be amplified by means such as providing a common tail to the free probe which itself comprises multiple chromogenic, enzymatic or radioactive labels or which is itself susceptible to specific binding by a further probe agent which is multiply labelled.
• a second round of signal amplification may be carried out.
• Labeled or unlabeled probes may be used in a second round of amplification.
• a lengthy DNA sample with multiple labels may result in an increased amplification intensity signal between 10 to 100 fold which may result in a total signal amplification of 100,000 fold.
• an intensity signal approximately 100,000 fold may give a positive result of probe-DNA ligation without having to employ PCR or other amplification procedures.
• an array or super array may be prepared which consists of a complete set of probes, for example 4096 6-mer probes.
• Arrays of this type are universal in a sense that they can be used for detection or partial to complete sequencing of any nucleic acid species.
• Individual spots in an array may contain single probe species or mixtures of probes, for example N(l-3) B(4-6) N(l-3) type of mixtures that are synthesized in the single reaction (N represents all four nucleotides, B one specific nucleotide and where the associated numbers are a range of numbers of bases i.e.
• the universal set of probes may be subdivided in many subsets which are spotted as unit arrays separated by barriers that prevent spreading of hybridization buffer with sample and labeled probe(s).
• For detection of a nucleic acid species with a known sequence one of more oligonucleotide sequences comprising both unlabelled fixed and labeled probes in solution may be selected.
• Labeled probes are synthesized or selected from the presynthesized complete sets of, for example, 7-mers. The labeled probes are added to corresponding unit arrays of fixed probes such that a pair of fixed and labeled probes will adjacently hybridize to the target sequence such that upon administration of ligase the probes will be covalently bound.
• a unit array contains more than one fixed probe (as separated spots or within the same spot) that are positive in a given nucleic acid species all corresponding labeled probes may be mixed and added to the same unit array.
• the mixtures of labeled probes are even more important when mixtures of nucleic acid species are tested.
• One example of a complex mixture of nucleic acid species are mRNAs in one cell or tissue.
• unit arrays of fixed probes allow use of every possible immobilized probe with cocktails of a relatively small number of labeled probes. More complex cocktails of labeled probes may be used if a multiplex labeling scheme is implemented. Preferred multiplexing methods may use different fluorescent dyes or molecular tags that may be separated by mass spectroscopy.
• relatively short fixed probes may be selected which frequently hybridize to many nucleic acid sequences. Such short probes are used in combination with a cocktail of labeled probes which may be prepared such that at least one labeled probe corresponds to each of the fixed proves.
• Preferred cocktails are those in which none of the labeled probes corresponds to more than one fixed probe.
• the nylon membranes were treated with a detergent containing buffer at 60-80°C.
• the spots of oligonucleotides were gridded in subarrays of 10 by 10 spots, and each subarray has 64 5- mer spots and 36 control spots. 16 subarrays give 1024 5-mers which encompasses all possible 5-mers.
• the subarrays in the array were partitioned from each other by physical barriers, e.g., a hydrophobic strip, that allowed each subarray to be hybridized to a sample without cross-contamination from adjacent subarrays.
• the hydrophobic strip is made from a solution of silicone (e.g., household silicone glue and seal paste) in an appropriate solvent (such solvents are well known in the art). This solution of silicone grease is applied between the subarrays to form lines which after the solvent evaporates act as hydrophobic strips separating the cells.
• the free 5-mers and the bound 5-mers are combined to produce all possible 10-mers for sequencing a known DNA sequence of less than 20 kb.
• 20 kb of double stranded DNA is denatured into 40 kb of single-stranded DNA.
• This 40 kb of ss DNA hybridizes to about 4% of all possible 10-mers.
• This low frequency of 10-mer binding and the known target sequence allow the pooling of free or solution (nonbound) 5-mers for treatment of each subarray, without a loss of sequence information.
• 16 probes are pooled for each subarray, and all possible 5-mers are represented in 64 total pools of free 5-mers.
• all possible 10-mers may be probed against a DNA sample using 1024 subarrays (16 subarrays for each pool of free 5-mers).
• the target DNA in this embodiment represents two-600 bp segments of the HIV virus. These 600 bp segments are represented by pools of 60 overlapping 30-mers (the 30-mers overlap each adjacent 30 mer by 20 nucleotides). The pools of 30-mers mimic a target DNA that has been treated using techniques well known in the art to shear, digest, and/or random PCR the target DNA to produce a random pool of very small fragments.
• the free 5-mers are labeled with radioactive isotopes, biotin, fluorescent dyes, etc.
• the labeled free 5-mers are then hybridized along with the bound 5-mers to the target DNA, and ligated.
• 300-1000 units of ligase are added to the reaction.
• the hybridization conditions were worked out following the teachings of the previous examples. Following ligation and removal of the target DNA and excess free probe, the array is assayed to determine the location of labeled probes (using the techniques described in the examples above).
• the known DNA sequence of the target, and the known free and bound 5-mers in each subarray predict which bound 5-mers will be ligated to a labeled free 5-mer in each subarray.
• the signal from 20 of these predicted dots were lost and 20 new signals were gained for each change in the target DNA from the predicted sequence.
• the overlapping sequence of the bound 5-mers in these ten new dots identifies which free, labeled 5-mer is bound in each new dot.
• repetitive DNA sequences in the target DNA are sequenced with "spacer oligonucleotides" in a modified Format III approach.
• Spacer oligonucleotides of varying lengths of the repetitive DNA sequence (the repeating sequence is identified on a first SBH run) are hybridized to the target DNA along with a first known adjoining oligonucleotide and a second known, or group of possible oligonucleotides adjoining the other side of the spacer (known from the first SBH run).
• a spacer matching the length of the repetitive DNA segment is hybridized to the target, the two adjacent oligonucleotides can be ligated to the spacer.
• a bound ligation product including the labeled second known or possible oligonucleotide(s) is formed when a spacer of the proper length is hybridized to the target DNA.
• branch points in the target DNA are sequenced using a third set of oligonucleotides and a modified Format III approach. After a first SBH run, several branch points may be identified when the sequence is compiled. These can be solved by hybridizing oligonucleotide(s) that overlap partially with one of the known sequences leading into the branch point and then hybridizing to the target an additional oligonucleotide that is labeled and corresponds to one of the sequences that comes out of the branch point. When the proper oligonucleotides are hybridized to the target DNA, the labeled oligonucleotide can be ligated to the other(s).
• a first oligonucleotide that is offset by one to several nucleotides from the branch point is selected (so that it reads into one of the branch sequences), a second oligonucleotide reading from the first and into the branch point sequence is also selected, and a set of third oligonucleotides that correspond to all the possible branch sequences with an overlap of the branch point sequence by one or a few nucleotides (corresponding to the first oligonucleotide) is selected.
• oligonucleotides are hybridized to the target DNA, and only the third oligonucleotide with the proper branch sequence (that matches the branch sequence of the first oligonucleotide) will produce a ligation product with the first and second oligonucleotides.
• sets of probes are labeled with different labels so that each probe of a set can be differentiated from the other probes in the set.
• the set of probes may be contacted with target nucleic acid in a single hybridization reaction without the loss of any probe information.
• the different labels are different radioisotopes, or different flourescent labels, or different EMLs. These sets of probes may be used in either Format I, Format II or Format III SBH.
• the set of differently labeled probes are hybridized to target nucleic acid which is fixed to a substrate under conditions that allow differentiation between perfect matches one base-pair mismatches.
• Specific probes which bind to the target nucleic acid are identified by their different labels and perfect matches are determined, at least in part, from this binding information.
• the target nucleic acids are labeled with different probes and hybridized to arrays of probes. Specific target nucleic acids which bind to the probes are identified by their different labels and perfect matches are determined, at least in part, form this binding information.
• Format III SBH the set of differently labeled probes and fixed probes are hybridized to a target nucleic acid under conditions that allow perfect matches to be differentiated from one base-pair mismatches. Labeled probes that are adjacent, on the target, to a fixed probe are bound to the fixed probe, and these products are detected and differentiated by their different labels.
• the different labels are EMLs, which can be detected by electron capture mass spectrometry (EC-MS).
• EMLs may be prepared from a variety of backbone molecules, with certain aromatic backbones being particularly preferred, e.g., see Xu et al , J. Chromatog. 764:95-102 (1997).
• the EML is attached to a probe in a reversible and stable manner, and after the probe is hybridized to target nucleic acid, the EML is removed from the probe and identified by standard EC-MS (e.g., the EC-MS may be done by a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer).
• EXAMPLE 31 EXAMPLE 31
• Format III SBH has sufficient discrimination power to identify a sequence that is present in a sample at 1 part to 99 parts of a similar sequence that differs by a single nucleotide.
• Format III can be used to identify a nucleic acid present at a very low concentration in a sample of nucleic acids, e.g., a sample derived from blood.
• the two sequences are for cystic fibrosis and the sequences differ from each other by a deletion of three nucleotides.
• Probes for the two sequences were as follows, probes distinguishing the deletion from wild type were fixed to a substrate, and a labeled contiguous probe was common to both. Using these targets and probes, the deletion mutant could be detected with Format III SBH when it was present at one part to ninety nine parts of the wild-type.
• An apparatus for analyzing a nucleic acid can be constructed with two arrays of nucleic acids, and an optional material that prevents the nucleic acids of the two arrays from mixing until such mixing is desired.
• the arrays of the apparatus may be supported by a variety of substrates, including but not limited to, nylon membranes, nitrocellulose membranes, or other materials disclosed above.
• one of the substrate is a membrane separated into sectors by hydrophobic strips, or a suitable support material with wells which may contain a gel or sponge.
• probes are placed on a sector of the membrane, or in the well, the gel, or sponge, and a solution (with or without target nucleic acids) is added to the membrane or well so that the probes are solubilized.
• the solution with the solubilized probes is then allowed to contact the second array of nucleic acids.
• the nucleic acids may be, but are not limited to, oligonucleotide probes, or target nucleic acids, and the probes or target nucleic acids may be labeled.
• the nucleic acids may be labeled with any labels conventionally used in the art, including but not limited to radioisotopes, fluorescent labels or electrophore mass labels.
• the material which prevents mixing of the nucleic acids may be disposed between the two arrays in such a way that when the material is removed the nucleic acids of the two arrays mix together.
• This material may be in the form of a sheet, membrane, or other barrier, and this material may be comprised of any material that prevents the mixing of the nucleic acids.
• This apparatus may be used in Format I SBH as follows: a first array of the apparatus has target nucleic acids that are fixed to the substrate, and a second array of the apparatus has nucleic acid probes that are labeled and can be removed to interrogate the target nucleic acid of the first array.
• the two arrays are optionally separated by a sheet of material that prevents the probes from contacting the target nucleic acid, and when this sheet is removed the probes can interrogate the target.
• the array of targets may be "read" to determine which probes formed perfect matches with the target. This reading may be automated or can be done manually (e.g., by eye with an autoradiogram).
• Format II SBH the procedure followed would be similar to that described above except that the target is labeled and the probes are fixed.
• the apparatus may be used in Format III SBH as follows: two arrays of nucleic acid probes are formed, the nucleic acid probes of either or both arrays may be labeled, and one of the arrays may be fixed to its substrate. The two arrays are separated by a sheet of material that prevents the probes from mixing.
• a Format II reaction is initiated by adding target nucleic acid and removing the sheet allowing the probes to mix with each other and the target.
• Probes which bind to adjacent sites on the target are bound together (e.g., by base-stacking interactions or by covalently joining the backbones), and the results are read to determine which probes bound to the target at adjacent sites.
• the fixed array can be read to determine which probes from the other array are bound together with the fixed probes.
• this reading may be automated (e.g., with an ELISA reader) or can be done manually (e.g., by eye with an autoradiogram).
• the oligonucleotide probes are fixed in a three- dimensional array.
• the three-dimensional array is comprised of multiple layers, such that each layer may be analyzed separate and apart from the other layers, or all the layers of the three-dimensional array may be simultaneously analyzed.
• Three dimensional arrays include, for example, an array disposed on a substrate having multiple depressions with probes located at different depths within the depressions (each level is made up of probes at similar depths within the depression); or an array disposed on a substrate having depressions of different depths with the probes located at the bottom of the depression, at the peaks separating the depressions or some combination of peaks and depressions (each level is made up of all probes at a certain depth); or an array disposed on a substrate comprised of multiple sheets that are layered to form a three-dimensional array.
• a plurality of distinct nucleic acid sequences were obtained from cDNA library, using standard per, SBH sequence signature analysis and Sanger sequencing techniques.
• the inserts of the library were amplified with per using primers specific for vector sequences which flank the inserts. These samples were spotted onto nylon membranes and interrogated with suitable number of oligonucleotide probes and the intensity of positive binding probes was measured giving sequence signatures.
• the clones were clustered into groups of similar or identical sequence signatures, and single representative clones were selected from each group for gel sequencing.
• the 5' sequence of the amplified inserts was then deduced using the reverse Ml 3 sequencing primer in a typical Sanger sequencing protocol. PCR products were purified and subjected to flourescent dye terminator cycle sequencing.
• an apparatus for mass producing arrays of probes may comprise a rotating drum or plate coupled with an ink-jet deposition apparatus, for example, a microdrop dosing head; and a suitable robotics systems, for example, an anorad gantry.
• an ink-jet deposition apparatus for example, a microdrop dosing head
• a suitable robotics systems for example, an anorad gantry.
• the apparatus comprises a cylinder (1) to which a suitable substrate is fixed.
• the substrate may be any of the materials previously described as suitable for an array of probes.
• the substrate is a flexible material, and the arrays are made directly on the substrate.
• a flexible substrate is fixed to the cylinder and individual chips are fixed on the substrate. The arrays are then made on each individual chip.
• physical barriers are applied to the substrate or chip and define an array of wells.
• the physical barriers may be applied to the substrate or chip by the apparatus, or alternatively, the physical barriers are applied to the chips or substrate before they are fixed to the cylinder (1).
• a single spot of oligonucleotide probes is then placed into each well, wherein the probes placed into an individual well may all have the same sequence, or the probes spotted into an individual well may have different sequences.
• the probe or probes spotted into each individual well in an array are different from the probe or probes spotted in the other wells of the array. Sequencing chips comprising multiple arrays can then be assembled from these arrays.
• a motor (not shown) rotates the cylinder.
• the cylinder's rotation speed is precisely determined by any of the ways well known in the art, including, for example using a fixed optical sensor and light source that rotates with the cylinder.
• a dispensing apparatus (3) moves along an arm (2) and can deliver probes or other reagents through a dispensing tip (8) to precise locations on the substrate or chips using the precise rotation speed calculated above, by methods well known in the art.
• the dispensing apparatus receives probes or reagents from the reservoir (6) through the feeding line (7).
• the reservoir (6) holds all the necessary probes and other reagents for making the arrays.
• the dispensing apparatus is depicted in Figure 3.
• the dispensing apparatus may have one or multiple dispensing tips (14 & 8). Each dispensing tip has a sample well (13) in a body (12) that receives probes or other reagents through a sample line (10).
• the pressure line (11) pressurizes the chamber (9) to a psi sufficient to force probes or reagents through the dispensing tip (14 & 8).
• the sample line (10), well (13) and dispensing tip (14 & 8) must be flushed between each change in probe or reagent.
• An appropriate washing buffer is supplied through sample line (10) or through an optional dedicated washing line (not shown) to the sample well (13) or optionally a portion or all of the chamber (9) may be filled with washing buffer. The washing buffer is then removed from the sample well (13) and chamber (9) if necessary by an evacuation line (not shown) or through the sample line (10) and dispensing tip (14 & 8).
• the substrate (with or without chips) is removed from the cylinder and a new substrate is fixed to the cylinder.
• a target nucleic acid is interrogated with probes that are complexed (covalent or noncovalent) to a plurality of discrete particles.
• the discrete particles can be discriminated from each other based on a physical property (or a combination of physical properties), and particles with differentiated by the physical property are complexed with different probes.
• the probe is an oligonucleotide of a known sequence and length.
• a probe may be identified by the physical property of the discrete particle.
• Suitable probes for this embodiment include all the probes that are described above in previous sections, including probes which are shorter in an informative sense than the probes full length.
• the physical property of the discrete particle may be any property, well known in the art, which allows particles to be differentiated into sets.
• the particles could be differentiated into sets based on their size, flourescence, absorbance, electromagnetic charge, or weight, or the particles could be labeled with dyes, radionuclides, or EMLs.
• Other suitable labels include ligands which can serve as specific binding members to a labeled antibody, chemiluminescers, enzymes, antibodies which can serve as a specific binding pair member for a labeled ligand, and the like.
• a wide variety of labels have been employed in immunoassays which can readily be employed.
• Still other labels include antigens, groups with specific reactivity, and electrochemically detectable moieties.
• Still further labels include any of the labels recited above in previous sections. These labels and properties may be measured quantitatively by methods well known in the art, including for example, those methods described above in previous sections, and the particles may be differentiated on the basis of signal intensity or signal type (for one of the labels, e.g., different dye densities may be applied to a particle, or different types of dyes). In a preferred embodiment, several physical properties are combined and the different combinations of properties allow discrimination of the particles (e.g. , ten sizes and ten colors could be combined to differentiate 100 particle groups).
• the particle-probes allow the exploitation of standard combinatorial approaches so that, for example, all possible 10-mers can be synthesized using about 2000 reaction containers.
• a first set of 1024 reactions are done to synthesize all possible 5-mers on 1024 differentially labeled particles.
• the resulting probe-particles are mixed together, and split into another set of 1024 reaction containers.
• a second set of reactions are done with these samples to synthesize all possible 5-mer extensions on the probes in the pools of particles.
• the physical property identifies the first five nucleotides of each probe and the reaction container will identify the identity of the second five nucleotides of every probe.
• all possible 10-mer probes are synthesized using 2048 reaction containers. This approach is easily modified to make all possible n-mers for a large range of probe lengths.
• the particles are separated into sets by the intensity of flourescence of the particles.
• the particles in each set are prepared with varying densities of flourescent label, and thus, the particles have different flourescence intensities.
• the flourescent intensity of flourescein is related to concentration over a range of 1:300 to 1:300,000 (Lockhart et al., 1986), and between 1:3000 to 1:300,000 there is a linear relationship (so the flourescein intensity is linear over a range of about 1-300).
• 256 sets of particles are labeled with flourescein (e.g., 3-259). 256 sets of particles allows all possible 4-mers to be attached to different sets of particles.
• all possible 5-mers can be made by having four pools of all possible 4-mers and then extending the probes in each pool by A, G, C, or T.
• all possible 6-mers can be made by having 16 pools of all possible 4-mers in which each pool of 4-mers is extended by one of the 16 possible two base permutations of A, G, C, and T (etc. for 7-mers there are 64 pools, 8-mers there are 256 pools, and so forth).
• the 5-mer probes (in four pools) are used to interrogate a target nucleic acid.
• the target nucleic acid is labeled with another flourescent dye, or other different label (as described above).
• Labeled target is mixed with the four pools, and complementary probes in each pool hybridize to the target nucleic acid. These hybridization complexes are detected by methods well-known in the art, and the positively hybridizing probes are then identified by detecting the flourescence intensity of the particle.
• the mixture of probe-particles and target nucleic acid are fed through a flow-cytometer or other separating instrument one particle at a time, and the particle label and the target are measured to determine which probes are complementary to the target nucleic acid.
• a set of free probes is labeled with another flourescent dye, or other label (as described above), and individual free probes are mixed with each pool of 5-mer probes (four pools) and then the mixtures are hybridized with the target nucleic acid.
• An agent is added to covalently attach free probe to 5-mer probe (see previous sections for a description of suitable agents), when the free probe is bound to a site on the target nucleic acid that is adjacent to the site on which the 5-mer probe is bound (the free probe site must be adjacent the end of the 5-mer probe which can be ligated).
• the particles are then assayed, by methods well known in the art, to determine which particles have been covalently coupled to the free probe, i.e., the particles which have the free probe label, and the 5-mer probe is identified by the flourescent intensity of the particle.
• the mixture of probe-particles, free probes, and target nucleic acid are fed through a flow-cytometer one particle at a time, and the particle label and the free probe label are measured to determine which probes are complementary to the target nucleic acid.
• a single apparatus houses all or most of the manipulations for an analysis of a target nucleic acid with the probe-particle complexes.
• the apparatus has one or more reagent chambers in which buffer and labeled target nucleic acid are thoroughly mixed (target nucleic acid may be added manually or automatically).
• the mixture is aliquoted from the reagent chamber into a plurality of reaction chambers, and each reaction chamber has a pool of probe-particle complexes.
• the probe-particles and target nucleic acid react under conditions which allow complementary probes to bind with the target nucleic acid.
• Excess target nucleic acid i.e., nonbound
• the particles bound to target nucleic acid are identified by the association of target nucleic acid label with the particles, and the probe is identified by the physical property of the particle.
• the particles move single file through a channel from the reaction chamber to the detecting device(s). As single particles move past the detecting device(s) they measure the target label and the physical property of the particle.
• the particles are fractionated, for example, by size (e.g. , exclusion chromatography), charge (e.g. , ion exchange chromatography), and/or density- weight into their sets using one or a combinations of these physical properties. These fractionated particles are then assayed by the detecting device(s).
• the main reagent chamber is supplied with buffer, target nucleic acid, a pool of probe-particle complexes, and a chemical or enzymatic ligating reagent. These components are thoroughly mixed and then aliquoted from the reagent chamber into a plurality of reaction chambers. Each of the reaction chambers has a labeled free probe.
• the pool of probe particle complexes may be placed in the reaction chamber with the free probe instead of adding them to the reagent chamber. Additionally, the free probes could be added to the reagent chamber, and the pool of probe particles could be added to the reaction chamber.
• the probe- particles, target nucleic acid, and free probe react under conditions which allow free- and particle-probes to bind with adjacent sites on the target nucleic acid so that free probe is ligated to the probe particle.
• Excess free probe (i.e., nonligated), and target nucleic acid are removed from the reaction chamber (e.g. , by washing), and the ligated probes are identified by the association of free probe label with the particles, and the probes complexed to the particles are identified by the physical property of the particle.
• the particles move single file through a channel from the reaction chamber to the detecting device(s).
• the particles As single particles move past the detecting device(s) they measure free probe label covalently attached to the particles, and the physical property of the particle.
• the particles before or after removing excess probe and the target, the particles are fractionated, for example, by size (e.g., exclusion chromatography), charge (e.g., ion exchange chromatography), and/or density/ weight into their sets using the physical property. These fractionated particles are assayed by the detecting device(s).
• the pool of probe-particles are placed in the second reaction chamber.
• Target and buffer are mixed in the reagent chamber and these are fed into the first reaction chamber which contains the labeled free probe.
• the probe and target are mixed, and optionally the probe may hybridize to the target.
• This mixture of labeled probe and target is then passed to the second reaction chamber which contains the pool of probe- particles.
• the free probe and probe-particles hybridize to target and appropriate probes are ligated in the second reaction chamber.
• the ligating agent may be added at the reagent chamber or in either reaction chamber, preferably, the ligating agent is added in the second reaction chamber.
• the probe-particle hybridization products in the second reaction chamber are analyzed as above.
• the target nucleic acid is not amplified prior to analysis (either by PCR or in a vector, e.g., a lambda library).
• a vector e.g., a lambda library.
• longer free and particle probes are used in this embodiment because of the increase in sequence complexity of the sample (i.e., to distinguish positives over background).
• probe-particle embodiments described in this example are suitable for use in any of the applications previously described, including, but not limited to the previously described diagnostic and sequencing applications. Additionally, these probe particle embodiments may be modified by any the previously described variations or modifications.
• the discrimination of perfect matches from mismatches in the binding of complementary polynucleotides is modulated by the addition of an agent or agents.
• the complementary polynucleotides are a target polynucleotide and a polynucleotide probe.
• the discrimination of perfect matches from mismatches may be modulated by adding an agent wherein the agent is a salt such as trialkyl ammonium salt (e.g., TMAC, Ricelli et al., Nucl. Acids Res.
• the discrimination of perfect matches from mismatches is improved by the agent or agents.
• formamide a commonly used denaturing agent
• a format III reaction was set up, and then varying amounts of formamide were added (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%).
• 0% a perfect match signal was detected and the background (mismatches) was high.
• 10% formamide there was a good perfect match signal and the background/mismatch signal was reduced.
• the perfect match signal was reduced (but detectable) and the background/mismatch signal was eliminated.
• 30% -50% formamide there was no perfect match or background/mismatch signal.
• an agent is used to reduce or increase the T m of a pair of complementary polynucleotides.
• a mixture of the agents is used to reduce or increase the T m of a pair of complementary polynucleotides.
• the agents may alter the T m in a number of ways, two examples, which are not meant to limit the invention, are (1) agents which disrupt the hydrogen bonding between the bases of two complementary polynucleotides (Goodman, Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. 94:10493-10495 (1997); Moran et al., Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. 94:10506-10511 (1997); Nguyen et al., Nucl.
• an agent or agents are added to decrease the binding energy of GC base pairs, or increase the binding energy of AT base pairs, or both.
• the agent or agents are added so that the binding energy from an AT base pair is approximately equivalent to the binding energy of a GC base pair.
• the energy of binding between two complementary polynucleotides is solely dependent on length. The energy of binding of these complementary polynucleotides may be increased by adding an agent that neutralizes or shields the negative charges of the phosphate groups in the polynucleotide backbone.

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