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PEDS Advance Access published online on November 6, 2009
Protein Engineering Design and Selection, doi:10.1093/protein/gzp063
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

USER friendly DNA recombination (USERec): a simple and flexible near homology-independent method for gene library construction

B.R.M. Villiers, V. Stein and F. Hollfelder1

Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fh111{at}mole.bio.cam.ac.uk

USER friendly DNA recombination (USERec) is introduced as a near homology-independent method that allows the simultaneous recombination of an unprecedented number of 10 DNA fragments (~40–400 bp) within a day. The large number of fragments and their ease of preparation enables the creation of libraries of much larger genetic diversity (potentially ~1010–1011 sequences) than current alternative methods based on DNA truncation (ITCHY, SCRATCHY and SHIPREC) or type IIb restriction enzymes (SISDC). At the same time, the frequency of frameshifts in the recombined library is low (90% of the recombined sequences are in frame). Compared to overlap extension PCR, USERec also requires much reduced crossover sequence constraints (only a 5'-AN4–8T-3' motif) and fewer experimental steps. Based on its simplicity and flexibility, and the accessibility of large and high quality recombined DNA libraries, USERec is established as a convenient alternative for the combinatorial assembly of gene fragments (e.g. exon or domain shuffling) and for a number of applications in gene library construction, such as loop grafting and multi-site-directed or random mutagenesis.

Keywords: directed evolution/DNA library/exon shuffling/homology-independent DNA recombination/USER enzyme

Received April 14, 2009; revised September 29, 2009; accepted September 30, 2009.


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