Setting Your Sites On Genes: Site-directed mutagenesis kits provide fast and efficient peeks into gene function

Date: October 13, 1997 Comparison Chart Knowing the sequence of a gene will never reveal all its secrets. There needs to be a way to tie the sequence of the DNA to the function of the protein. Almost as old as the field of genetics itself is the study of mutations-heritable changes in DNA-through which scientists have attempted to make this connection. With advances in molecular biology technology and in particular the development of the means for synthesizing DNA, mutations are being produce

Written byLaura Defrancesco

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Date: October 13, 1997

Comparison Chart

Knowing the sequence of a gene will never reveal all its secrets. There needs to be a way to tie the sequence of the DNA to the function of the protein. Almost as old as the field of genetics itself is the study of mutations-heritable changes in DNA-through which scientists have attempted to make this connection. With advances in molecular biology technology and in particular the development of the means for synthesizing DNA, mutations are being produced with speed and precision probably never imagined by H.J. Muller and other pioneers in the field of mutagenesis.

While there are a number of approaches to in vitro mutagenesis-linker scanning, linker insertions, or nested deletions, to name a few-by far the most common in use today is site-directed mutagenesis and, in particular, oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis, as revealed by the 12 kits that are in the market today. Oligo-directed ...

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