DNA sequencing by hybridization to microchip
octa- and decanucleotides extended by stacked pentanucleotides
DNA sequencing by hybridization to microchip octa- and decanucleotides extended by stacked pentanucleotides
Sergei
Parinov
1
,
Victor
Barsky
1
,
Gennady
Yershov
1,+
,
Eugene
Kirillov
1
,
Edward
Timofeev
1
,
Alexander
Belgovskiy
1
and
Andrei
Mirzabekov
1,2,+,
*
Joint Human Genome Program:
1
Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, 32 Vavilov Str., B-334,
Moscow
117984,
Russia
and
2
Center for Mechanistic Biology and Biotechnology, Argonne National Laboratory,
9700 South Cass Avenue,
Argonne
, IL 60439,
USA
Received March 28, 1996;
Revised and Accepted June 22, 1996
ABSTRACT
The efficiency of sequencing by hybridization to an oligonucleotide microchip
grows with an increase in the number and in the length of the oligonucleotides;
however, such increases raise enormously the complexity of the microchip and
decrease the accuracy of hybridization. We have been developing the technique
of contiguous stacking hybridization (CSH) to circumvent these shortcomings.
Stacking interactions between adjacent bases of two oligonucleotides stabilize
their contiguous duplex with DNA. The use of such stacking increases the
effective length of microchip oligonucleotides, enhances sequencing accuracy
and allows the sequencing of longer DNA. The effects of mismatches, base
composition, length and other factors on the stacking are evaluated. Contiguous
stacking hybridization of DNA with immobilized 8mers and one or two 5mers
labeled with two different fluorescent dyes increases the effective length of
sequencing oligonucleotides from 8 to 13 and 18 bases, respectively. The
incorporation of all four bases or 5-nitroindole as a universal base into different positions of the 5mers
permitted a decrease in the number of additional rounds of hybridization.
Contiguous stacking hybridization appears to be a promising approach to
significantly increasing the efficiency of sequencing by hybridization.
INTRODUCTION
Hybridization of DNA with oligonucleotides has been developed for DNA sequencing
[sequencing by hybridization (SbH)] and sequence analysis (
1
-
9
). A simple example demonstrates this approach. A 10 base-long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), AGTCGGAATA, when hybridized with all possible
8mers, gives rise to perfect duplexes upon binding with only three 8mers: 1,
TTCCGACT; 2, ATTCCGAC; and 3, TATTCCGA. Overlapping of two 8mers of known
sequence, 1 and 2 or 2 and 3, by seven bases allows one to consider them as
adjacent in DNA, to arrange them in the proper order, and to reconstruct the
sequence of the DNA. Such a hybridization can be carried out with an array (
4
) or microarray (sequencing microchip) (
6
-
9
) of immobilized oligonucleotides; however, a full sequencing microchip for SbH
is too complex. An array of 65 536 8mers is needed to sequence DNA up to 200
bases long, and an array of 67 108 864 13mers is needed for sequencing DNA a
few thousand bases long. In both cases, only a negligible fraction of the
oligonucleotides in the array, 200 or a few thousand respectively, are
hybridized with DNA. To overcome this drawback of SbH, we have suggested (
1
,
5
) using of an array of short oligonucleotides (8mers) and extending the length
of only those that are hybridized to the DNA.
This extension can be carried out by contiguous stacking hybridization without
any additional oligonucleotide synthesis. A major factor in DNA duplex
stability is stacking interactions between adjacent bases in a DNA strand. The
stacking interactions stabilize the DNA duplex even in the absence of a
phosphodiester bond or a phosphate group (
5
-
7
,
10
-
12
). Thus, rather weak duplexes of 5mers with DNA are significantly reinforced by
stacking with more stable, adjacent, 8mer duplexes to allow the assembly of a
13 bp (base pairs) duplex lacking phosphodiester bonds between the 8mer and the
5mer (Fig.
1
A) (
6
). The stacked 5mers can also be ligated to longer oligonucleotides or DNA (
13
).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Synthesis of oligonucleotides
Oligonucleotides were synthesized on a 394 DNA/RNA synthesizer (Applied
Biosystems Inc.) by using reagents from Applied Biosystems Inc.
Oligonucleotides for immobilization were synthesized with 3-methyluridine located on the 3' end. The 5'-fluorescent pentamers were synthesized by using HEX
and FAM amidites (Applied Biosystems Inc.). The phosphoramidite of 5-nitroindole was prepared as described (
16
).
Microchip manufacturing
A microchip with oligonucleotides immobilized within polyacrylamide gel elements
(8% acrylamide; 0.28% bis-acrylamide) of 100 [mu]m * 100 [mu]m * 20 [mu]m (in the wet condition), spaced by 200 [mu]m and attached to a glass surface, was
prepared as described (
6
,
7
). The polyacrylamide gel was activated by replacing some amide groups with
hydrazide groups. Oligodeoxynucleotides for immobilization containing 3'-terminal 3-methyluridine were activated by oxidation with NaIO
4
to produce dialdehyde groups for coupling with the hydrazide groups of the gel
(
6
). The solution of activated oligonucleotide was transferred onto the microchip
element with a specially devised one-pin robot (
7
). Each gel element contained ~100 fmol of immobilized oligonucleotide.
Monitoring hybridization on a microchip
Oligonucleotides were fluorescently labeled with HEX or FAM and hybridized with
a microchip. The fluorescence of every microchip element was monitored in real
time (0.1-1 s) (
7
) with a specially devised multicolor epifluorescence microscope equipped with a
charge-coupled device (CCD) camera (TE/CCD512SF, Princeton Instruments) and two
sets of fast exchangeable FAM- and HEX-specific (OMEGA Optical) filters. The image of the microchip on the
CCD camera was displayed and analyzed on a personal computer using specially
developed software; the results were printed out (
7
).
Hybridization
Microchips were hybridized with 1 [mu]M 21 base-long ssDNA in 2-5 [mu]l of the hybridization buffer (1 M NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1%
Tween 20 and 5 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.0) at 0oC for 15 min on a Peltier thermotable (working range from -5.0 to +60.0oC). Unbound DNA was washed out at 0oC for 10-20 s in 50-100 [mu]l of the hybridization buffer. Then
microchips were hybridized with mixtures of fluorescent 5mers (1-3 [mu]M each) at 0oC for 5 min in 2-5 [mu]l of the hybridization buffer. The hybridization
solution was covered by a cover-glass slide (Corning) with attached 0.1 mm-thick spacers. Following hybridization, pentamers were washed off
with 50-100 [mu]l of the hybridization buffer at 20oC for 10 min (duplex DNA hybridized to the immobilized
oligonucleotides remains stable under these conditions). Then other 5mers were
hybridized with the microchip under the same conditions. The hybridized DNA was
washed off under more stringent conditions: 100 [mu]l of 100 times-diluted hybridization buffer at 20oC for 10 min.
RESULTS
The validity of contiguous stacking hybridization for DNA sequence analysis and
identification of the [beta]-thalassemia mutations was demonstrated for the first exon and the
first intron of [beta]-globin gene (
7
). A synthetic 21 base-long ssDNA from the same region of [beta]-globin gene was used to test the effect of different factors
on hybridization of DNA with immobilized 8mers and 10mers and fluorescently
labeled 5mers in solution (see Figs
2
-
4
).
DISCUSSION
There are several approaches to preparing an array of immobilized
oligonucleotides: solid-phase synthesis of oligonucleotides by conventional methods on a two-dimensional surface, (e.g., a glass) (
4
); a highly efficient, photo-activated parallel synthesis of a large oligonucleotide microarray (
8
,
9
); and immobilization of presynthesized oligonucleotides (
5
,
6
,
18
,
19
).
In the sequencing by hybridization to oligonucleotide microchips approach,
presynthesized oligonucleotides are immobilized within three-dimensional gel microchip elements, which provides several essential
advantages. The large capacity of the gel for immobilization, together with the
high hybridization capacity of gel-immobilized oligonucleotides, increases the sensitivity of the
hybridization monitoring. The apparent stability of DNA duplexes formed with
gel-immobilized oligonucleotides depends on their concentration (
6
). High concentrations of immobilized 8mers allow their efficient hybridization
with DNA and the monitoring of the formation of unstable duplexes with stacked
5mers. The use of the gel-immobilized oligonucleotides appears to be crucial for contiguous stacking
hybridization with 5mers.
There is a difference in the stacking interactions among all 16 possible pairs
of adjacent bases. Among them, eight were tested in the 5mer hybridizations
with immobilized 8mers and 10mers. Even one of the weakest, TA stacking (
20
-
22
), was strong enough (Table
1
, oligonucleotides 9 and 20) to be used in CSH. As expected, an essentially
lower stability was observed for A/T-rich stacked duplexes with 5mers. Nevertheless, monitoring of
hybridization with 80-100% A/T 5mers can be carried out without including a washing procedure.
The 5mer duplex stability can be significantly increased by adding 5-nitroindole as a universal sixth base into the 5'-terminal position (Table
2
). This addition can be recommended as a general approach for stabilizing the
derived hybrids.
The duplexes for 5mers, 8mers and 10mers vary in stability due to different
numbers of base pairs. The duplex stabilities can be calculated approximately
by the use of empirical rules (
20
-
22
). As the result of these differences, the hybridization of DNA on a microchip
containing immobilized 8mers and 10mers was carried out separately from the
second round of hybridization with the 5mers. The conditions for these
hybridizations were found from preliminary experiments. The fluorescence
measurements can be carried out simulteneously for all microchip elements in
real time with our specially devised fluorescence microscope equipped with a
CCD camera (
7
). This enables us to measure in parallel the melting curves for all duplexes
formed on microchips and identify an optimal temperature for the detection of
each duplex (unpublished information).
The accuracy of SbH depends on how reliably perfect duplexes can be
discriminated from those containing mismatches (in particular, terminal
mismatches). The presence of a mismatch in the duplex apparently has a higher
destabilizing effect for 5mers than for 8mers and longer oligonucleotides. A
mismatch in the stacked 5mer usually blocks hybridization completely, whereas
in an immobilized 10mer, the mismatch just lowers the extent of hybridization
(Figs
2
and
3
). Even the least-destabilizing (G-T) terminal mismatch in the 5'-terminal position significantly (5-fold) decreases the hybridization signal from the
stacked 5mer and can be reliably discriminated (Fig.
2
d and e). Thus, hybridization with 5mers can significantly increase the accuracy
of sequencing and of identifying base changes, compared with direct SbH
methology.
In the presence of short repeats in DNA, sequence reconstitution based on
hybridization data can be ambiguous. Repeats as short as 7 and 12 bases lead to
ambiguity upon hybridization with the 8mer microchip alone or together with a
5mer stacked with the immobilized 8mer respectively. `Double' hybridization on
the 8mer microchip with two differently labeled 5mers, stacked to each other
and to immobilized 8mer (Fig.
4
), provides the essential information needed to reconstitute a DNA sequence a
few thousand bases in length containing up to 16 base repeats (
10
).
The identification of known base changes in DNA by the hybridization for genetic
determination of known mutations, for example, requires hybridization with a
few 5mers; however, gene polymorphism studies or
de novo
sequencing may require hybridization with up to 1024 5mers. To simplify such a
cumbersome procedure to one involving only five rounds of hybridization, a
modification using 20 5mers was envisioned (Fig.
1
D). With these 5mers, the discriminating bases are present in only one position
of the 5mers and the 5mers are labeled with four different fluorescent dyes for
the four varied bases. All other positions are occupied with all four bases or
with a base with multiple specificity that matches all four bases. We have
demonstrated here that this procedure works with a four-base substitution at two positions and with the 5'-terminal, 5-nitroindole (Table
2
). 5-Nitroindole, as expected (
17
), stabilized the duplexes only at their terminal positions and destabilized
them at internal ones. Inosine and other universal bases (
23
) could also be tested for their ability to increase the efficiency of the
hybridization.
These experiments suggest that contiguous stacking hybridization may be a
promising approach for sequence analysis, possibly including
de novo
DNA sequencing, and studies of genomic diversity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are indebted to Dr Yu. Lysov, Aleksei Drobyshev and Natalia Mologina for
their contribution to this work and crucial comments. We thank L. Novikova and
D. E. Nadziejka for editorial assistance. This work was supported by grants 558
and 562 of the Russian Human Genome Program, and by contract 943352403 with
Argonne National Laboratory (USA).
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*
To whom correspondence should be addressed
+
Present address: Center for Mechanistic Biology and Biotechnology, Argonne
National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, USA