Multiple site-directed mutagenesis of more than 10 sites simultaneously and in a single round

Site-directed mutagenesis is a powerful tool to explore the structure-function relationship of proteins, but most traditional methods rely on the mutation of only one site at a time and efficiencies drop drastically when more than three sites are targeted simultaneously. Many applications in functional proteomics and genetic engineering, including codon optimization for heterologous expression, generation of cysteine-less proteins, and alanine-scanning mutagenesis, would greatly benefit from a multiple-site mutagenesis method with high efficiency. Here we describe the development of a simple and rapid method for site-directed mutagenesis of more than 10 sites simultaneously with up to 100% efficiency. The method uses two terminal tailed primers with a unique 25-nucleotide tail each that are simultaneously annealed to template DNA together with the set of mutagenic primers in between. Following synthesis of the mutant strand by primer extension and ligation with T4 DNA polymerase and ligase, the unique mutant strand-specific tails of the terminal primers are used as anchors to specifically amplify the mutant strand by high-fidelity polymerase chain reaction. We have employed this novel method to mutate simultaneously all 9 and 11 CUG leucine codons of the Hyg and Neo resistance genes, respectively, to the Candida albicans-friendly UUG leucine codon at 100% efficiency.