ABSTRACT
An adaptor is an oligonucleotide that is ligated to a nucleic acid polymer to add additional function. One function of an adaptor is to provide a primer for PCR amplification of a DNA fragment obtained from the genome (Saunders, R.D.C., Glover, D.M., Ashburner, M., et al., PCR amplification of DNA microdissected from a single polythene chromosome band: A comparison with conventional microcloning, Nucleic Acids Res., 17, 9027–9037, 1981; O’Malley, R.C., Alonso, J.M., Kim, K.J., Leisse, T.J., and Ecker, J.R., An adaptor ligation-mediated PCR method for high-throughput mapping of T-DNA inserts in the Arabidopsis genome, Nat. Protocols, 2, 2910–2917, 2007). An adaptor may also be used to provide an additional function to a nucleic acid as shown by the ligation of a DNA to an siRNA providing enhanced therapeutic efficacy (Heissig, P., Klein, P.M., Hadwiger, P., and Wagner, E., DNA as tunable adaptor for siRNA polyplex stabilization and functionalization, Mol. Ther. Nucleic Acids, 5, 3288, 2016).
