Suppressor-Linker Insertional Mutagenesis: Positions Ofviable
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Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 81, pp. 4149-4153, July 1984 Genetics Construction of mutants of Moloney murine leukemia virus by suppressor-linker insertional mutagenesis: Positions of viable insertion mutations (virus replication/synthetic DNA/oligonucleotides) LESLIE I. LOBEL AND STEPHEN P. GOFF Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Cancer Research, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032 Communicated by Harold S. Ginsberg, March 20, 1984 ABSTRACT A highly efficient method for the generation thetic oligonucleotide sequence containing a restriction en- of insertion mutations is described. The procedure involves the zyme recognition site is inserted at the position of cleavage use of a 220-base-pair (bp) Ec6RI fragment bearing the SuIIIl in the target DNA. The resulting mutations can be readily suppressor tRNA gene as an insertional mutagen. The plasmid mapped simply by determining the site of cleavage by the DNA to be mutagenized is linearized by a variety of means, restriction enzyme that recognizes the inserted sequence. and the suppressor fragment is ligated into the site of cleavage. We have constructed several libraries of mutants of Mo- Successful insertion mutants can be readily detected in Esche- loney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) by the insertion of richia coli carrying lac- amber mutations on MacConkey lac- EcoRI linkers at random positions in a cloned DNA copy of tose plates; virtually 100% of the red colonies contain inser- the viral genome. During the course of these studies, we tions of the fragment. Subsequent removal of the SulIl+ gene found that the efficiency of the process was highly variable; and recyclization leaves a 12-bp insertion if the original cleav- linkers were added poorly to ends formed by some nucleases age was blunt-ended and a 9-bp insertion if the original cleav- and very few linker insertions could be successfully formed. age generated 3-bp cohesive termini. This technique, as well as To circumvent this difficulty, we have developed an im- conventional linker mutagenesis with decamer and dodecamer proved method by which rare insertion events can be readily linkers, was used to generate a large library of insertion muta- detected, obviating the screening of large numbers of clones tions in cloned DNA copies of the genome of Moloney murine by electrophoresis to identify insertions. By this method, leukemia virus. A number of viable mutants were isolated large libraries of mutants, free of wild-type parental DNA, bearing 9-, 10-, and 12-bp insertions in various domains of the can be efficiently constructed. In this report, we describe genome. The map positions of the viable mutations suggest the method and its application to the genetic analysis of the that the viral long terminal repeats and portions of the gag and genome of M-MuLV. We have screened libraries of mutants env genes are quite insensitive to alteration. Although most of and, after transfection of NIH/3T3 cells, have recovered nu- the mutations were stable for many passages, some of the mu- merous clones that are still replication competent. The posi- tants lost the inserted DNA; we presume that the insertion was tions of the mutations in these clones define noncoding and somewhat deleterious in these mutants and that continued pas- coding regions of the viral genome that are dispensible for sage of the virus selected for overgrowth by a revertant. replication or that can tolerate insertions without deleterious effects on the virus. The in vitro mutagenesis of cloned genes has been one of the most powerful tools in the elucidation of the relationship be- MATERIALS AND METHODS tween structure and function of DNA sequences. By intro- Bacteria. Escherichia coli strain HB101 (rec A13,- hsdRl, ducing defined alterations in a sequence and correlating the hsdM-, lac Y1, supE44) was used as the recipient cell for changes with alterations in gene function, it has been possi- most DNA transformations (12). To detect the presence of ble to define such features as transcriptional promoters (1- the SuIII+ suppressor gene, strain CC114 [del(ara,leu)7697, 4), RNA splicing signals (5), RNA polyadenylylation signals lacZ- amYJ4, galU, galK, hsdR-, hsdM', strAr, rifr, argE- (6), ribosome binding sites (7), and protein domains needed am, srl::TnIO, recAl] was used as recipient. This strain, con- for particular enzymatic activities (8, 9). Our power to carry structed and generously provided by C. Manoil, gave high out such analyses has been increased enormously as the transformation efficiencies comparable to that of HB101. techniques used to make the defined alterations have be- Plasmid DNAs. Plasmids used in this work include p8.2 come increasingly sophisticated (10). (13), a complete permuted copy of the M-MuLV genome in- The use of these techniques is sometimes limited by our serted in the HindIII site of pBR322; pACYC177 (14), a vec- ability to choose likely target regions for mutagenesis. When tor containing no EcoRI sites; pMOV9 (15), containing an there is no information defining which parts of a gene are integrated proviral copy of the M-MuLV genome; pBR328 essential for a particular function, then narrowly targeted in (16), a vector with a single Pvu II site; and piVX (17), a plas- vitro mutagenesis is not helpful in the localization of that mid carrying the SuIII+ gene. function. In such cases, it is necessary to generate a large Enzymatic Reactions. Synthetic oligomers (New England library of mutants with defined alterations scattered Biolabs) were phosphorylated with T4 polynucleotide kinase throughout the cloned DNA and to screen these mutants for (Bethesda Research Laboratories) at a concentration of 1 ,ug a desired phenotype. One of the best ways to construct such per 10 A.l in buffer (50 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.4/10 mM a library is by "linker insertion" mutagenesis (11): a circular MgCI2/10 mM dithiothreitol) containing 1 mM ATP (5 Ci/ target DNA is linearized with a nuclease, and a short syn- mmol; 1 Ci = 37 GBq) for 1 hr at 370C. One-tenth of the preparation (0.1 pug) was ligated to DNA (1-5 ,ug) in the same The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" Abbreviations: M-MuLV, Moloney murine leukemia virus; kb, kilo- in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. base(s); bp, base pair(s). 4149 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 4150 Genetics: Lobel and Goff Proc. NatL. Acad. Sci. USA 81 (1984) buffer overnight at 15'C before purification by agarose gel DNAs were linearized by treatment with restriction enzymes electrophoresis. Restriction enzymes were used according to Hae III or Alu I. These enzymes produce blunt ends and can the specifications of the' manufacturer (New England Bio- make cleavages at a large number of sites in the M- labs). Partial cleavages were carried out at 250C for various MuLV genome: a total of 64 and 36 sites, respectively, are times (1-60 min). Typically, 40 gg of DNA in 200 1.l of the present in the 8.8-kb provirus. After limited digestion, link- recommended buffer was digested with 1 unit of enzyme, ers were added with T4 DNA ligase, and the full-length lin- and aliquots were removed for analysis. Optimal times for ear molecules were isolated by agarose gel electrophoresis. formation of full-length linear DNAs were usually 20-40 The mixture was digested with EcoRI, circles were reformed min. Cohesive ends of DNA fragments were filled in with the by ligation, and clones were prepared from bacterial trans- Klenow fragment (18) of DNA polymerase I (New England formants. With this technique, our best experiments pro- Biolabs) in buffer (50 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.4/10 mM duced populations in which -50% of the DNAs were found MgCl2/10 mM dithiothreitol) containing the four deoxyri- to contain novel EcoRI sites. In some cases, however, only bonucleotides (1 mM each). Ends were blunted before addi- 10% contained an EcoRI site. Furthermore, independently tion of linkers by treatment with S1 nuclease (19) (Boeh- isolated inserts at a given site sometimes generated different ringer Mannheim) in buffer (300 mM NaCl/30 mM sodium phenotypes, suggesting that sometimes insertions of differ- acetate, pH 4.6/4 mM ZnCl2) at 20'C for 20 min. Reactions ent lengths had occurred. with terminal transferase (20, 21) obtained from Bethesda The positions of a large number of these insertion muta- Research Laboratories were carried out with -0.5 ,ug of tions were determined by digestion with pairs of restriction DNA in 100 ,ul of buffer (200 mM potassium cacodylate, pH enzymes (EcoRI and HindIII, or EcoRI and Sal I) followed 7.2/1. mM mercaptoethanol/1 mM CoC12/50 ,uM dGTP or by agarose gel electrophoresis. Once the approximate map dCTP) for 1-4 min at 25°C. DNAs to be joined were mixed, position was determined from these digests, the exact site of heated to 70°C for 5 min, and then cooled to 40°C for 4 hr insertion was mapped by measuring the distance from the before transformation of bacteria. linker to a nearby restriction site on acrylamide gels. When DNA sequence analysis was as described (22). two Hae III or Alu I sites were close together, DNA se- Bacterial Transformations. Transformation of strain quence analysis was used to determine the insertion site. CC114 was carried out according to standard protocols, Mutations were assigned numbers according to the base po- treating the cells with buffer (50 mM CaCl2/10 mM Tris HCl, sition of the insertion starting at the left edge of the left long pH 7.4) to induce competence.