Turbo cloning: a fast, efficient method for cloning PCR products and other blunt-ended DNA fragments into plasmids

The method uses a novel plasmid vector, p9lox5, containing a site-specific recombination sequence lox from the lox/Cre recombinase system of bacteriophage P1. There are two distinct stages. Firstly, vector and fragment DNAs are ligated intermolecularly under conditions of macromolecular crowding (15% polyethylene glycol 6000) which accelerate blunt-end joining a thousandfold. Secondly, circular recombinant molecules are efficiently excised from the ligation products by Cre recombinase acting on pairs of lox sites within directly repeated vector molecules flanking insert DNA. Recombinants are introduced into cells conventionally by transformation or electroporation. In both a model system and the cloning of PCR products, yields approaching those obtainable in cohesive-end cloning were achieved. Applications of the technique to cDNA library generation and recovery of DNA from archive material are discussed.