T7 DNA Ligase Variants Having Increased Ligation Efficiency

1 . A mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment thereof, comprising: one or more of the following the amino acid mutations preceding a comma, wherein the mutation is the substitution at the positions indicated in each amino acid sequence and wherein the entire amino acid sequence is represented in the adjacent even numbered sequence identification number: E63K (SEQ ID NO:4), D132R (SEQ ID NO:6), E243K (SEQ ID NO: 8), D245R (SEQ ID NO: 10), E272K (SEQ ID NO: 12), D288R (SEQ ID NO:14), E289K (SEQ ID NO: 16), and E292K (SEQ ID NO:18).

2 . The mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein each said amino acid sequence further includes multiple histidine residues at its C-terminus.

3 . The mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment thereof of claim 2 , wherein there are six histidine residues at its C-terminus.

4 . The mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment thereof of claim 2 , wherein a series of alternating Glycine and Serine amino acid residues are adjacent to and precede the multiple histidine residues.

5 . A polynucleotide encoding an amino acid sequence of one of the mutant T7 DNA ligases of claim 1 .

6 . The polynucleotide of claim 5 which is one of the following sequences: E63K (SEQ ID NO:3), D132R (SEQ ID NO:5), E243K (SEQ ID NO:7), D245R (SEQ ID NO:9), E272K (SEQ ID NO:11), D288R (SEQ ID NO:13), E289K (SEQ ID NO:15), and E292K (SEQ ID NO:17).

7 . The mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment thereof of claim 1 wherein one or more of said even-numbered amino acid sequence has conservative substitutions for certain of its amino acids but only to the extent that there remains at least 80%, 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99% sequence identity to the sequence represented in the adjacent sequence identification number.

8 . A polynucleotide encoding an amino acid sequence of one of the mutant T7 DNA ligases of claim 7 .

9 . A vector incorporating a polynucleotide of claim 5 .

10 . A vector incorporating a polynucleotide of claim 8 .

11 . A cell transformed with and expressing a polynucleotide of claim 5 .

12 . A cell transformed with and expressing a vector of claim 9 .

13 . A process of conducting polynucleotide ligation between different polynucleotides or by ligating the 5′ and 3′ ends of polynucleotides to generate circular polynucleotide, wherein the polynucleotides have blunt ends or cohesive ends, comprising:

providing a ligation mixture including the polynucleotides to be ligated and a mutant T7 DNA ligase or a biologically active fragment of claim 1 ; and

providing a temperature for said ligation mixture wherein ligation takes place.

14 . The process of claim 13 wherein the ligation reaction mixture includes Tris-HCl, MgCl 2 , ATP, dithiothreitol and water.