Construction of homemade 'T-vectors'

This method is after Marchuk,D.,et al.,1991,Nucl.Acids Res.19(5),pp1154.

You will need:
      10 x Taq buffer (Promega)
      Taq Polymerase (Promega)
      Phenol/chloroform mix
      100mM dTTP
      TE buffer
      Absolute ethanol
      70% ethanol

1) Digest plasmid to be used with a blunt-end restriction enzyme (I use EcoRV and pBluescript SK-).

2) Clean digestion reaction by phenol/chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation.

3) Redissolve DNA in 1 x Taq PCR buffer (I use Taq and buffer from Promega but I think any non-proofreading Taq will work) to give approx. 1ug DNA/20 ul.

4) Add dTTP to a final conc. of 2mM (typically from a 100mM stock solution).

5) Add Taq polymerase to give 1 unit/ug DNA/20ul.

6) Incubate mixture at 72°C for 2 hours.

7) Extract mixture once with phenol/chloroform and once with chloroform.

8) Ethanol precipitate DNA,wash with 70% ethanol,dry and redissolve in TE at an approx. conc. of 25ng/ul.

9) Quantitate DNA (I use an approx.quantitation by gel fluorescence against standards).

10) For ligations,use approx.25-50ng T-vector and sufficient PCR product to give a 3:1,insert:vector molar ratio(I use T4 Ligase from Gibco-BRL together with their PEG-based buffer).

11) Ligate O/N at 15°C.

12) Transform 1/5 ligation mix into competent E.coli(I use DH5a cells at approx.5 x 107 cfu/ug pUC19).