title: Single-molecule emulsion PCR in microfluidic droplets.
abstract: The application of microfluidic droplet PCR for single-molecule amplification and analysis has recently been extensively studied. Microfluidic droplet technology has the advantages of compartmentalizing reactions into discrete volumes, performing highly parallel reactions in monodisperse droplets, reducing cross-contamination between droplets, eliminating PCR bias and nonspecific amplification, as well as enabling fast amplification with rapid thermocycling. Here, we have reviewed the important technical breakthroughs of microfluidic droplet PCR in the past five years and their applications to single-molecule amplification and analysis, such as high-throughput screening, next generation DNA sequencing, and quantitative detection of rare mutations. Although the utilization of microfluidic droplet single-molecule PCR is still in the early stages, its great potential has already been demonstrated and will provide novel solutions to today's biomedical engineering challenges in single-molecule amplification and analysis.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemical Biology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Mingxia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhichao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Chaoyong James
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D004247:DNA