A simple and efficient procedure for generating random point mutations and for codon replacements using mixed oligodeoxynucleotides.

A very simple and highly efficient procedure for the generation of single and multiple substitutions in segments of DNA is described which has no requirements for conveniently placed restriction sites, and allows all DNA sequences to be equally accessible. A mixed pool of oligodeoxynucleotides is synthesized by contaminating the monomeric nucleotides with low levels of the other three nucleotides such that the full-length oligonucleotide contains on the average one to two changes per molecule. This pool is used in priming in vitro synthesis of the complementary strand of cloned DNA fragments in M13 or pEMBL vectors which have previously been passed through a dut-, ung- Escherichia coli host. Strong selection for the newly synthesized strand is provided by transforming the heteroduplex into a dut+, ung+ host. Single and multiple substitutions in the carboxy-terminal coding region of the MATa1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are introduced at high efficiency (25-55%) and the changes are identified by direct sequencing alone. The same principle can be used to generate multiple sets of changes at any specified codon.