Non-Cloning Ligation

The ability to ligate two or more pieces of DNA together enzymatically has found utility in many applications in the life sciences. Library preparation for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) typically incorporates a ligation step to add bar-coded adapters to fragmented DNA, a critical step in this popular workflow. Many novel detection methodologies incorporate the ligation of DNA probes followed by a polymerase-based amplification step. For example, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection using the Ligase Chain Reaction (LCR) is a well-known application using a non-cloning thermostable ligase. Many other detection methods capitalizing on the ligation of DNA are being employed by basic and applied research groups, as well as many molecular diagnostics (MDx) companies.