An alternative method for the synthesis of tailor-made genes

Oligonucleotide synthesis was coupled with amplification by the polymerase chain reaction to generate an exact translational fusion between a plant signal sequence and an animal structural gene. A synthetic 111-mer oligonucleotide representing less than two percent of the reaction products was successfully amplified by using short primers containing restriction sites designed for ease of cloning and providing in-frame fusion. The method overcomes the length-versus-yield dilemma in oligonucleotide synthesis, and is generally adaptable to the construction of a translationally competent coding sequence from any two DNA fragments.