MDA/IMS-MDA

MDA/IMS-MDA

Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) is a method commonly used for sequencing microbial genomes due to its ability to amplify templates larger than 0.5 Mbp, but it can also be used to study genomes of other sizes . In this method, 3’-blocked random hexamer primers are hybridized to the template, followed by synthesis with Phi 29 polymerase. Phi 29 performs strand-displacement DNA synthesis, allowing for efficient and rapid DNA amplification. Deep sequencing of the amplified DNA allows for accurate representation of reads, while sequencing depth provides better alignment and consensus for sequences.

  • MDA: Dean F. B., Nelson J. R., Giesler T. L. and Lasken R. S. (2001) Rapid amplification of plasmid and phage DNA using Phi 29 DNA polymerase and multiply-primed rolling circle amplification. Genome Res 11: 1095-1099
  • IMS-MDA:Seth-Smith H. M. et al. (2013) Generating whole bacterial genome sequences of low-abundance species from complex samples with IMS-MDA. Nat Protoc 8: 2404-2412