A multiple cloning site (MCS), also called a polylinker, is a short segment of DNA which contains many (up to ~20) restriction sites - a standard feature of engineered plasmids.[1] Restriction sites within an MCS are typically unique, occurring only once within a given plasmid. The purpose of an MCS in a plasmid is to allow a piece of DNA to be inserted into that region.[2]
An MCS is found in a variety of vectors, including cloning vectors to increase the number of copies of target DNA, and in expression vectors to create a protein product.[3] In expression vectors, the MCS is located downstream of the promoter.[2]
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