Continuous extension and deblocking in reactions for nucleic acids synthesis and sequencing

Abstract

A reaction mixture including (a) a nucleic acid having a primer hybridized to a template, (b) nucleotide analogs, wherein the nucleotide analogs have a blocking moiety; (c) a polymerase that is capable of forming an extended primer by adding the nucleotide analogs to the primer, and (d) a deblocking agent that is capable of removing the blocking moiety from the extended primer. Also provided is a method of synthesizing a polynucleotide including sequentially adding a plurality of the different nucleotides analogs to the nucleic acid via several reaction cycles in the reaction mixture, wherein each reaction cycle includes (i) the polymerase adding a nucleotide analog to the nucleic acid to form a transient nucleic acid species comprising a blocking moiety, and (ii) the deblocking agent modifying the transient nucleic acid species to remove the blocking moiety.