Unusual Orientation of cDNAs Found in a cDNA Library

Many cloning vectors in which cDNAs can be inserted to the sense orientation have been developed. Uni-ZAP XR vector (Stratagene) should contain clones that are oriented to sense direction with respect to T3 RNA polymerase primer. Unexpectedly, large portions of cDNAs in Chinese cabbage cDNA library showed unusual insertions, antisense orientation and a hybrid of two different clones. Using two clones, 4H03 and 53-B10, derived from different cDNA libraries, we proposed and demonstrated the possibility of unusual-construct formation by in vitro translation and northern blot analysis. The 4H03 clone was inserted with inverse direction, and its transcript and translation product could be produced by T7 RNA polymerase, indicating that this clone is definitely inserted into inverse orientation. The 53-B10 that contains two independent genes was turned out to be a hybrid in which two genes are inserted to opposite direction each other. All unusual constructs might be due to the presence of small fragments of DNA, like adapter. However, the mechanism underlined the formation of unusual constructs is still remain to be solved.