NUCLEIC ACID AMPLIFICATION

Disclosed are compositions and a method for amplification of nucleic acid sequences of interest. The method is based on strand displacement replication of the nucleic acid sequences by primers. The disclosed method is a form of multiple displacement amplification (MDA) useful for amplifying genomic nucleic acid samples and other nucleic acid samples of high complexity. The disclosed method can be used to amplify such highly complex nucleic acid samples using only one or a limited number of primers. It has been discovered that one or a small number of primers can effectively amplify whole genomes an other nucleic acid samples of high sequence complexity.; The primers are specially selected or designed to be able to prime and efficiently amplify the broad range of sequences present in highly complex nucleic acid samples despite the limited amount of primer sequence represented in the primers. It has been discovered that generation of high molecular weight artifacts, in an isothermal amplification procedure, is substantially reduced or eliminated while still allowing the desired amplification of input DNA by carrying out the reaction at a higher temperature and, optionally, in the presence of one or more additives. It has also bee discovered that amplification reactions can produce amplification products of high quality, such as low amplification bias, if performed on an amount of nucleic acid at or over a threshold amount and/or on nucleic acids at or below a threshold concentration.