Bacteriophage lambda vector for transducing a cDNA clone library into mammalian cells.

We have developed a bacteriophage lambda vector (lambda NMT) that permits efficient transduction of mammalian cells with a cDNA clone library constructed with the pcD expression vector (H. Okayama and P. Berg, Mol. Cell. Biol. 3:280-289, 1983). The phage vector contains a bacterial gene (neo) fused to the simian virus 40 early-region promoter and RNA processing signals, providing a dominant-acting selectable marker for mammalian transformation. The phage DNA can accommodate pcD-cDNA recombinants with cDNA of up to about 9 kilobases without impairing the ability of the phage DNA to be packaged in vitro and propagated in vivo. Transfecting cells with the lambda NMT-pcD-cDNA recombinant phage yielded G418-resistant clones at high frequency (approximately 10(-2]. Cells that also acquired a particular cDNA segment could be detected among the G418-resistant transformants by a second selection or by a variety of screening protocols. Reconstitution experiments indicated that the vector could transduce 1 in 10(6) cells for a particular phenotype if the corresponding cDNA was present as 1 functional cDNA clone per 10(5) clones in the cDNA library. This expectation was confirmed by obtaining two hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)-positive transductants after transfecting 10(7) HPRT-deficient mouse L cells with a simian virus 40-transformed human fibroblast cDNA library incorporated into the lambda NMT phage vector. These transductants contained the human HPRT cDNA sequences and expressed active human HPRT.