Fig. 1.

Encoding and recovering metrics through polony adjacency. (A) Seed molecules with unique barcode sequences land randomly on a surface of primers. (B) Local amplification of seed molecules produces sequence-distinct polonies. (C) Saturation of polonies occurs when polonies are blocked from further growth by encountering adjacent polonies, forming a tessellated surface. (D) Random cross-linking of adjacent strands leads to pairwise association of nearby barcodes. (E) Recovery and sequencing of barcode pairs enable reconstruction of a network with similar relative positions of polonies to those on the original surface.