title: Novel strategies to construct complex synthetic vectors to produce DNA molecular weight standards.
abstract: DNA molecular weight standards (DNA markers, nucleic acid ladders) are commonly used in molecular biology laboratories as references to estimate the size of various DNA samples in electrophoresis process. One method of DNA marker production is digestion of synthetic vectors harboring multiple DNA fragments of known sizes by restriction enzymes. In this article, we described three novel strategies-sequential DNA fragment ligation, screening of ligation products by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with end primers, and "small fragment accumulation"-for constructing complex synthetic vectors and minimizing the mass differences between DNA fragments produced from restrictive digestion of synthetic vectors. The strategy could be applied to construct various complex synthetic vectors to produce any type of low-range DNA markers, usually available commercially. In addition, the strategy is useful for single-step ligation of multiple DNA fragments for construction of complex synthetic vectors and other applications in molecular biology field.
authors.affiliation: National Clinical Research Base of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310006, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jianbing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xiaojuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chunjiang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wenxing
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics; D003001:Cloning, Molecular / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000592:standards*; D011088:DNA Ligases / Q000378:metabolism; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D008970:Molecular Weight; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012015:Reference Standards
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral; D004247:DNA; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D011088:DNA Ligases