High-efficiency full-length cDNA cloning by biotinylated CAP trapper

We have devised a method for efficiently constructing high-content full-length cDNA libraries based on chemical introduction of a biotin group into the diol residue of the cap structure of eukaryotic mRNA, followed by RNase I treatment to select full-length cDNA. The selection occurs by trapping the biotin residue at the cap sites using streptavidin-coated magnetic beads, thus eliminating incompletely synthesized cDNAs. When this method was used to construct a mouse brain full-length cDNA library, our evaluation showed that more than 95% of the total clones were of full length, and recombinant clones could be produced with high efficiency (1.2 x 10(7)/10 mu g starting mRNA). The analysis of 120 randomly picked clones indicates an unbiased representation of the starting mRNA population. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.