Selection of recombinant antibodies by eukaryotic ribosome display.

Ribosome display is a powerful method for selection of single-chain antibodies in vitro. It operates through the formation of libraries of antibody-ribosome-mRNA complexes that are selected on immobilized antigen, followed by recovery of the genetic information from the mRNA by RT-PCR. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic versions are used. We describe our eukaryotic system, in which rabbit reticulocyte extracts are used for cell free transcription/translation and cDNA is recovered by in situ RT-PCR performed on the selected complexes.