In vivo recombineering of bacteriophage λ by PCR fragments and single-strand oligonucleotides

We demonstrate that the bacteriophage λ Red functions efficiently recombine linear DNA or single-strand oligonucleotides (ss-oligos) into bacteriophage λ to create specific changes in the viral genome. Point mutations, deletions, and gene replacements have been created. While recombineering with oligonucleotides, we encountered other mutations accompanying the desired point mutational change. DNA sequence analysis suggests that these unwanted mutations are mainly frameshift deletions introduced during oligonucleotide synthesis.