Use of Recombination-Mediated Genetic Engineering for Construction of Rescue Human Cytomegalovirus Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Clones
Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) technology has contributed immensely to manipulation of larger genomes in many organisms including large DNA viruses like human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). The HCMV BAC clone propagated and maintained insideE. coliallows for accurate recombinant virus generation. Using this system, we have generated a panel of HCMV deletion mutants and their rescue clones. In this paper, we describe the construction of HCMV BAC mutants using a homologous recombination system. A gene capture method, or gap repair cloning, to seize large fragments of DNA from the virus BAC in order to generate rescue viruses, is described in detail. Construction of rescue clones using gap repair cloning is highly efficient and provides a novel use of the homologous recombination-based method inE. colifor molecular cloning, known colloquially as recombineering, when rescuing large BAC deletions. This method of excising large fragments of DNA provides important prospects forin vitrohomologous recombination for genetic cloning.