Enzymatic assembly for scFv library construction

Abstract

Recombinant monoclonal antibodies can be established by displaying single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody libraries on phages and then biopanning against the target. For constructing superior scFv libraries, antibody light-chain variable region (VL) and heavy-chain variable region (VH) fragments must be assembled into scFvs without loss of diversity. A high-quality scFv library is a prerequisite for obtaining strong binders from the scFv library. However, the technical challenges associated with the construction of a diverse library have been the bottleneck in the establishment of recombinant antibodies through biopanning. Here, we describe a simple and efficient method for assembling VL and VH fragments through the concerted action of λ-exonuclease and Bst DNA polymerase. We successfully used this method to construct a diverse chicken scFv library.