High-Molecular-Weight Polynucleotides by Transferase-Catalyzed Living Chain-Growth Polycondensation

We present terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-catalyzed enzymatic polymerization (TcEP) for the template-free synthesis of high-molecular-weight, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and demonstrate that it proceeds by a living chain-growth polycondensation mechanism. We show that the molecular weight of the reaction products is nearly mono-disperse, and can be manipulated by the feed ratio of nucleotide (monomer) to oligonucleotide (initiator), as typically observed for living polymerization reactions. Understanding the synthesis mechanism and the reaction kinetics enables the rational, template-free synthesis of ssDNA that can be used for a range of biomedical and nanotechnology applications.