Total chemical synthesis, assembly of human torque teno virus genome.

Torque teno virus (TTV) is a nonenveloped virus containing a single-stranded, circular DNA genome of approximately 3.8kb. We completely synthesized the 3 808 nucleotides of the TTV (SANBAN isolate) genome, which contains a hairpin structure and a GC-rich region. More than 100 overlapping oligonucleotides were chemically synthesized and assembled by polymerase chain assembly reaction (PCA), and the synthesis was completed with splicing by overlap extension (SOEing). This study establishes the methodological basis of the chemical synthesis of a viral genome for use as a live attenuated vaccine or gene therapy vector.