Assaying the quality of cDNA libraries

Once a cDNA library has been constructed, it is very useful to be able to easily assess the quality of the library. Because actin is a ubiquitous sequence, this assessment has been accomplished by probing filter lifts and Southern blots of libraries with an actin cDNA probe. These methods provide information about the percent of actin-positive clones and the degree of completeness of cDNA clones in a library. Results of these methods are correlated with the success of finding full-length clones of interest.