A Mutagenesis Assay for Reporter Gene Screening Using Partially Degenerate Oligonucleotides of the Tandems NNT and NNC

Abstract

Not all proteins are tolerable to mutations. Whether a specific protein can be a mutable target is of importance in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. This study reported a novel mutagenesis assay using tandem NNT and NNC oligonucleotides to test the mutability of a candidate gene. These two tandem oligonucleotides avoid the risk of forming nonsense mutations and render flexibility of truncating or expanding the insertion size. As a reporter gene, ZeoR (zeocin resistance gene) was confirmed to have a high tolerance for mutagenesis by this new assay.