Directed evolution of nucleotide-based libraries using lambda exonuclease

Directed evolution of nucleotide libraries using recombination or mutagenesis is an important technique for customizing catalytic or biophysical traits of proteins. Conventional directed evolution methods, however, suffer from cumbersome digestion and ligation steps. Here, we describe a simple metho...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bee Nar Lim, Yee Siew Choong, Asma Ismail, Jörn Glökler, Zoltán Konthur, Theam Soon Lim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2012-12-01
Series:BioTechniques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.2144/000113964
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Directed evolution of nucleotide libraries using recombination or mutagenesis is an important technique for customizing catalytic or biophysical traits of proteins. Conventional directed evolution methods, however, suffer from cumbersome digestion and ligation steps. Here, we describe a simple method to increase nucleotide diversity using single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) as a starting template. An initial PCR amplification using phosphorylated primers with overlapping regions followed by treatment with lambda exonuclease generates ssDNA templates that can then be annealed via the overlap regions. Double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) is then generated through extension with Klenow fragment. To demonstrate the applicability of this methodology for directed evolution of nucleotide libraries, we generated both gene shuffled and regional mutagenesis synthetic antibody libraries with titers of 2×108 and 6×107, respectively. We conclude that our method is an efficient and convenient approach to generate diversity in nucleic acid based libraries, especially recombinant antibody libraries.
ISSN:0736-6205
1940-9818