High-Efficiency Protection of Linear DNA in Cell-Free Extracts from and .

The field of cell-free synthetic biology is an emerging branch of engineered biology that allows for rapid prototyping of biological designs and, in its own right, is becoming a venue for the operation of gene circuit-based sensors and biomanufacturing. To date, the related DNA encoded tools that operate in cell-free reactions have primarily relied on plasmid DNA inputs, as linear templates are highly susceptible to degradation by exonucleases present in cell-free extracts. This incompatibility has precluded significant throughput, time and cost benefits that could be gained with the use of linear DNA in the cell-free expression workflow.