RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Clonal amplification-enhanced gene expression for cell-free directed evolution JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2022.11.17.516858 DO 10.1101/2022.11.17.516858 A1 Abil, Zhanar A1 Restrepo Sierra, Ana Maria A1 Danelon, Christophe YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/17/2022.11.17.516858.abstract AB In cell-free gene expression, low input DNA concentration severely limits the phenotypic output, which may impair in vitro protein evolution efforts. We address this challenge by developing CADGE, a strategy that is based on clonal isothermal amplification of a linear gene-encoding dsDNA template by the minimal Φ29 replication machinery and in situ transcription-translation. We demonstrate the utility of CADGE in bulk and in clonal liposome microcompartments to boost up the phenotypic output of soluble and membrane-associated proteins, as well as to facilitate the recovery of encapsulated DNA. Moreover, we report that CADGE enables the enrichment of a DNA variant from a mock gene library either via a positive feedback loop-based selection or high-throughput screening. This new biological tool can be implemented for cell-free protein engineering and the construction of a synthetic cell.Competing Interest StatementZ.A. and C.D. have filed patent 22315279.4 entitled Micro-compartmentalized ultra-high throughput screening from single copy gene libraries.