Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Paper
  • Published:

A New Vector for Cloning Large Eukaryotic DNA Segments in Escherichia coli

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between plasmid size and electroporation efficiency in E. coli and found that even very large plasmids can be transfected efficiently. The efficiencies are well above the minimum required to construct representative libraries of complex eukaryotic genomes. To exploit this observation we constructed a novel mammalian-E. coli shuttle vector whose replication in E. coli is driven by the F sex factor episome origin. This new vector system should accept inserts well in excess of 100 kb, thus putting the cloning of mammalian genes by direct phenotypic complementation within reach.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Murray, A.W. and Szostak, J.W. 1983. Construction of artificial chromosomes in yeast. Nature 305: 189–193.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Burke, D.T., Carle, G.F. and Olson, M.V. 1987. Cloning large segments of exogenous DNA into yeast by means of artificial chromosome vectors. Science 236: 806–812.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sternberg, N. 1990. Bacteriophasse Pl cloning system for the isolation, amplification, and recovery of DNA fragments as large a 100 kilobase pairs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87: 103–107.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. O'Connor, M., Peifer, M. and Bender, W. 1989. Construction of large DNA segments in Escherichia coli. Science 244: 1307–1312.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Brownstein, B.H., Silverman, G.A., Little, R.D., Burke, D.T., Korsmeyer, S.J., Schlessinger, D. and Olson, M.V. 1989. Isolation of single-copy human genes from a library of yeast artificial chromosome clones. Science 244: 1348–1351.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Dower, W.J., Miller, J.F. and Ragsdale, C.W. 1988. High efficiency transformation of E. coli by high voltage electroporation. Nucleic Acids Res. 16: 6127–6145.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Shikegawa, K. and Dower, W.J. 1988. Electroporation of eukaryotes and prokaryotes: a general approach to the introduction of macromolecules into cells. Biotechniques 6: 742–751.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Yanisch-Perron, C., Vieira, J. and Messing, J. 1985. Improved M13 phage cloning vectors and host strains: nucleotide sequences of the M13mp18 and pUC19 vectors. Gene 33: 103–119.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Schnipper, L.E., Chan, V., Sedivy, J.M., Jat, P.S. and Sharp, P.S. 1989. Gene activation by induced DNA rearrangements. Cancer Res. 49: 6640–6644.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Sedivy, J.M., Capone, J.P., RajBhandary, U.L. and Sharp, P.A. 1987. An inducible mammalian amber suppressor: propagation of a poliovirus mutant. Cell 50: 379–389.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Casadaban, M.J. and Cohen, S.N. 1980. Analysis of gene control signals by DNA fusion and cloning in Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 138: 179–207.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Vinograd, J., Lebowitz, J., Radloff, R., Watson, R. and Laipis, P. 1965. The twisted circular form of polyoma viral DNA. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 53: 1104–1111.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Holloway, B. and Low, B.K. 1987. F-prime and R-prime factors, p. 1145–1153 In: Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. F.C. Neid-hardt (Ed.). ASM Press, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Gorman, C. 1986. High efficiency gene transfer into mammalian cells, p. 143–190. In: DNA Cloning, a Practical Approach. D. M. Glover (Ed.). IRL Press, Oxford, U.K.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Guyer, M.S., Reed, R.R., Steitz, J.A. and Low, K.B. 1981. Identification of a sex factor affinity (sfa) site in E. coli as γδ. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 45: 135–140.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Willetts, N. and Skurray, R. 1987. Structure and function of the F factor and mechanism of conjugation, 1110–1133. In: Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. F. C. Neidhardt (Ed.). ASM Press, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Bullock, W.O., Fernandez, J.M. and Short, J.M. 1987. XL-1 blue: a high efficiency plasmid transforming recA Escherichia coli strains with β-galactosidase selection. BioTechniques 5: 376–379.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Powell, I.B., Achen, M.G., Hillier, A.J. and Davidson, B.E. 1988. A simple and rapid method for genetic transformation of lactic streptococci by electroporation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 54: 655–660.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Potter, H. 1988. Electroporation in biology: methods, applications, and instrumentation. Anal. Biochem 174: 361–373.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Kinosita, K., Jr. and Tsong, T.Y. 1977. Formation and resealing of pores of controlled sizes in human erythrocyte membrane. Nature 268: 438–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Neumann, E., Schaefer-Ridder, M., Wang, Y. and Hofschneider, P.H. 1982. Gene transfer into mouse lymphoma cells by electroporation in high electric fields. EpMBO J. 1: 841–845.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Kinosita, K., Jr., Ashikawa, I., Saita, N., Yoshimura, H., Itoh, H., Nagayama, K. and Ikegami, A. 1988. Electroporation of cell membrane visualized under pulsed-laser fluorescence microscope. Biophys. J. 53: 1015–1019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Houseal, T.W., Bustamante, C., Stump, R.F. and Maestre, M.F. 1989. Real-time imaging of single DNA molecules with fluorescence microscopy. Biophys. J. 56: 507–516.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Taketo, A. 1988. DNA transfection of Escherichia coli by electroporation. Biochem. Biophys. Acta 949: 318–324.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Daniel Cohen, personal communication.

  26. Wyman, A.R., Wolfe, L.B. and Botstein, D. 1985. Propagation of some human DNA sequences in bacteriophage λ vectors requires mutant Escherichia coli hosts. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 82: 2880–2884.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ishiura, M., Hazumi, N., Koide, T., Uchida, T. and Okada, Y. 1989. A recB recC sbcB recJ host prevents racA-independent deletions in recombinant cosmid DNA propagated in Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 171: 1068–1074.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Leach, D. and Lindsey, J. 1986. In vivo loss of supercoiled DNA carrying a palindromic sequence. Mol. Gen. Genet. 204: 322–327.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Smith, C.L., Lawrence, S.K., Gillespie, G.A., Cantor, C.R., Weiss-man, S.M. and Collins, F.S. 1987. Strategies for mapping and cloning macroregions of mammalian genomes. Meth. Enzymol. 151: 461–489.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Pinney, D.F., Pearson-White, S.H., Konieczny, S.F., Latham, K.E. and Emerson, C.P., Jr. 1988. Myogenic lineage determination and differentiation: evidence for a regulatory gene pathway. Cell 53: 781–793.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Jastreboff, M.M., Ito, E., Bertino, J.R. and Narayanan, R. 1987. Use of electroporation for high-molecular-weight DNA-mediated gene transfer. Exp. Cell Res. 171: 513–517.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Hesse, J.E., Lieber, M.R., Gellert, M. and Mizuuchi, K. 1987. Extrachromosomal DNA substrates in pre-B cells undergo inversion or deletion at immunoglobulin V-(D)-J joining signals. Cell 49: 775–783.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Birnboim, H.C. and Doly, J. 1979. A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 7: 1513–1523.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F. and Maniatis, T. 1989. Molecular Cloning a Laboratory Manual, 2nd. ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, NY.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Leonardo, E., Sedivy, J. A New Vector for Cloning Large Eukaryotic DNA Segments in Escherichia coli. Nat Biotechnol 8, 841–844 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0990-841

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0990-841

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing