PCR-Directed Linker Scanning Mutagenesis

Linker scanning mutagenesis is a powerful method with which to assay the contribution of individual DNA sequence elements within a transcriptional control region (1 ). By replacing discrete segments of DNA with heterologous segments of the same length, the topological and spatial organization of the DNA helix is maintained. This allows the contribution of individual DNA-binding motifs to be determined in the context of the native DNA helix configuration. Although most commonly employed in the analysis of promoter and enhancer regions, linker scanning mutagenesis has also been adapted for the analysis of protein coding regions (2 ).