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John M. S. Bartlett.pdf - Bio-Nica.info

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Cloning and Mutagenesis 467<br />

64<br />

Cloning and Mutagenesis<br />

A Technical Overview<br />

Helen Pearson and David Stirling<br />

1. Introduction<br />

Strategies for cloning polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products and performing in<br />

vitro site-directed mutagenesis are legion, and the following chapters outline five robust<br />

and reliable protocols. Before embarking on such a strategy, however, it is worth considering<br />

if it is entirely necessary. Even high-fidelity, proofreading Taq polymerases carry the<br />

risk of misincorporated bases being included, especially late in the PCR, when dNTP<br />

concentrations may become limiting. Thus, if the product is cloned, there is a chance<br />

that the clone selected contains a misincorporated base. If the purpose of the exercise is<br />

simply to determine the sequence of the original template, it may be more appropriate<br />

to sequence the PCR product directly and so avoid such cloning bias. If the object is to<br />

produce a clone that can be further used in expression studies for instance, it is imperative<br />

that all cloned material is sequenced to verify its integrity, prior to expression.<br />

2. Cloning<br />

2.1. T Overhangs<br />

Taq polymerases lacking 3′ to 5′ exonuclease activity tends to add nontemplatedirected<br />

nucleotides to the ends of double-stranded DNA fragments. If blunt end<br />

cloning is to be used, these overhangs need to be “polished,” and Chapter 65 by<br />

Kai Wang provides an optimized method using T4 DNA polymerase. Because the<br />

predominant nucleotide added in this nontemplate-directed manner is adenosine, many<br />

successful protocols have used vectors with a thymidine overhang to direct the cloning.<br />

This allows rapid cloning into a shuttle vector, from which the fragment can then be<br />

restricted and cloned further. Alternatively, Horton and colleagues present an elegant<br />

protocol (Chapter 66) using T-linkers to enable cloning into specific sites.<br />

2.2. Restriction Site Primers<br />

Neither blunt-end cloning nor the use of T-overhang vectors allows directional<br />

cloning. If the region of template DNA to be amplified contains suitable restriction<br />

sites, the product can simple be digested and cloned in the same way as any other DNA<br />

fragment. If this is not feasible, it is possible to introduce restriction site sequences<br />

From: Methods in Molecular <strong>Bio</strong>logy, Vol. 226: PCR Protocols, Second Edition<br />

Edited by: J. M. S. <strong>Bartlett</strong> and D. Stirling © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ<br />

467

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