摘要：Many genome walking methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are available, including those with and without restriction enzyme modification. Nevertheless, these methods suffer from low reproducibility, inefficiency, and non-specificity. Here, we present a traceable and efficient PCR strategy: randomly broken fragment PCR with 5′ end-directed adaptor for genome walking. The genome is first fragmented randomly. After blunting ends, the fragments are ligated to the 5′ end-directed adaptors. Semi-nested PCR is then performed. Thus, we can obtain an unknown sequence by cloning the fragments of interest, followed by sequencing. This method effectively bypasses the above-mentioned obstacles and offers the advances: 1) genome fragmentation without using restriction enzymes; 2) enhancement of primer specificity and the prevention of self-ligation between the adaptors by employing a 5′ end-directed adaptor. All of the steps in this new method are straightforward, and the unknown sequence can be definitively obtained by merely applying the method once.
