Abstract
When trying to identify a clone within a cDNA library, which may contain a coat protein (CP) gene, one useful technique may by immunological screening, using antibodies raised against either purified virus or isolated CP. Antibody screening can be carried out on a cDNA cloned into a wide range of vectors, including plasmids and phage-based vectors. Indeed, a whole plethora of commercial vectors are now available that have been optimized for generating expression libraries, including λ-gt11, λZAP (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA). However, antibody screening can be carried out on the simplest of plasmid vectors, based on the principle that, if the plasmid uses blue/white color selection, then a percentage of the cDNA inserts will be expressed as a fusion protein with β-galactosidase when the cells are induced with IPTG. The method described within this chapter will deal with such a plasmid screen, with readers directed to λ-screening chapters by Somssich and WeiBhaar in Plant Gene Isolation (1) and Hurst in cDNA Library Protocols (2), and (one of the original and best descriptions) by Huynh et al. 3 in DNA Cloning: A Practical Approach (3), all being good references for suitable lambda protocols. A typical immunological screen is shown in Fig. 1, for a pUC13 vector (4). Double-stranded cDNA to the carlavirus, Helenium virus S (HelVS) was ligated into SmaI digested pUC13 vector and transformed into competent Escherichia coli. Colonies were screened with both nucleic acid probes using HelVS specific (32P) first-strand cDNA (Fig. 1 A) and also using HelVS polyclonal antisera (Fig. 1 B).
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Somssich, I. E. and WeiBhaar, B. (1996) Expressing library screening, in Plant Gene Isolation (Foster, G. D. and Twell, D., eds.), Wiley, New York.
Hurst, H. C. (1997) Immunological screening of phage cDNA expression libraries, in cDNA Library Protocols (Cowell, I. G. and Austin, A. A., eds.), Humana, Totowa, NJ, pp. 155–159.
Huynh, T. V., Young, R. A., and Davies, R. W. (1988) Constructing and screening cDNA libraries in lambda-gt10 and lambda-gt11, in DNA Cloning: A practical Approach, vol 1. (Glover, D. M., ed.), IRL, Oxford, UK, pp. 49–78.
Foster, G. D., Scott, R., Draper, J., and Mills, P. R. (1992) Expression of Helenium virus S coat protein in Escherichia coli, in vitro in rabbit reticulocyte and transgenic tobacco. Acta Virol. 36, 567–575.
Foster, G. D., Millar, A. W., Meehan, B. M., and Mills, P. R. (1990) Nucleotide sequence of the 3-terminal region of Helenium virus S RNA. J. Gen. Virol. 71, 1877–1880.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Humana Press Inc.
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Foster, G.D. (1998). Expression Library Screening. In: Foster, G.D., Taylor, S.C. (eds) Plant Virology Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 81. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-385-6:287
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-385-6:287
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-385-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-566-2
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols