Highly Efficient Single-pot Scar-less Golden Gate Assembly.

Golden Gate assembly is one of the most widely used DNA assembly methods due to its robustness and modularity. However, despite its popularity, the need for BsaI-free parts, the introduction of scars between junctions, as well as the lack of a comprehensive study on the linkers hinders its more widespread use. Here, we first developed a novel sequencing scheme to test the efficiency and specificity of 96 linkers of 4 bp length and experimentally verified these linkers and their effects on Golden Gate assembly efficiency and specificity. We then used the resulting sequencing data to generate 200 distinct linker sets that can be used by the community to perform efficient Golden Gate assemblies of different sizes and complexity. We also presented a single-pot scar-less Golden Gate assembly and BsaI removal scheme and its accompanying assembly design software to perform point mutations and Golden Gate assembly. This assembly scheme enables scar-less assembly without compromising efficiency by choosing optimized linkers near assembly junctions.