Rapid and efficient site-specific mutagenesis without phenotypic selection.

TLDR

A uracil‑containing DNA template retains coding potential for in vitro mutagenesis but is inactive in wild‑type E. coli, enabling site‑directed mutagenesis and studies of lesion effects. The method achieves roughly tenfold higher efficiency than current protocols by using a template with uracil residues substituted for thymine, allowing rapid transfection of unfractionated mutagenesis products.

Abstract

Several single-base substitution mutations have been introduced into the lacZ alpha gene in cloning vector M13mp2, at 40-60% efficiency, in a rapid procedure requiring only transfection of the unfractionated products of standard in vitro mutagenesis reactions. Two simple additional treatments of the DNA, before transfection, produce a site-specific mutation frequency approaching 100%. The approach is applicable to phenotypically silent mutations in addition to those that can be selected. The high efficiency, approximately equal to 10-fold greater than that observed using current methods without enrichment procedures, is obtained by using a DNA template containing several uracil residues in place of thymine. This template has normal coding potential for the in vitro reactions typical of site-directed mutagenesis protocols but is not biologically active upon transfection into a wild-type (i.e., ung+) Escherichia coli host cell. Expression of the desired change, present in the newly synthesized non-uracil-containing covalently closed circular complementary strand, is thus strongly favored. The procedure has been applied to mutations introduced via both oligonucleotides and error-prone polymerization. In addition to its utility in changing DNA sequences, this approach can potentially be used to examine the biological consequences of specific lesions placed at defined positions within a gene.