Site-directed mutagenesis using positive antibiotic selection.

Various mutagenesis protocols have been established that use the hybridization of a mismatched oligonucleotide to prime DNA synthesis on an M13 phagemid template. For efficient mutagenesis, all of these methods require a means to select for the mutant strand before or during amplification in an Escherichia coli host. In the Altered Sites II protocol, the mismatched oligonucleotide and an oligonucleotide that restores antibiotic resistance to the phagemid are simultaneously hybridized to the template and coupled by DNA synthesis and ligation. The restored antibiotic resistance is then used to select only those phagemids which incorporate the antibiotic repair oligonucleotide. Generally, between 60 and 90% of the phagemids recovered will incorporate both oligonucleotides. This method provides a simple an efficient technique for introducing specific mutations into DNA.