Protein coding genes are expressed into mRNAs comprising an Open Reading Frames (ORF) that contain the genetic information needed for protein synthesis. For many applications, it is preferable to remove untranslated regions from cDNAs and to clone only the ORF region into suitable vectors for protein expression. The conversion of regular full-length cDNAs into protein expressing ORF clones is a major challenge for the functional analysis of large cDNA collections. The ORFeome Collaboration (OC) formed in 2005 therefore is establishing a sequence-validated human ORF cDNA collection. The coding regions of all predicted protein-coding ORFs from the human genome, the so-called "ORFeome", will be cloned during this project to provide one representative ORF clone for each of the about 18,500 protein coding human genes. DNAFORM is presently distributing about 12,200 human and 1,700 mouse ORF clones out of this collection. We are expecting that the ORF clone collection will grow rapidly in 2008.

DNAFORM provides ORF clones as a slant culture without an ID check and isolated plasmid DNA with an ID check.

All ORF clones can be found in our Clone Search Engine.

→Clone Search

See ORFeome Collaboration Web Site for more information.

→ORFeome Collaboration

All ORF clones are provided in Entry Vectors for the Invitrogen Gateway® cloning system. The Gateway® cloning system uses site-specific recombination sites for an efficient transfer of the ORF sequence from the Entry Vector to a Destination Vector. Invitrogen offers a whole range of Destination Vectors for a wide range of applications. Refer to the homepage of Invitrogen for further information on the Gateway® cloning system and related Invitrogen products at:

→Life Technologies>Gateway® Technology（PDF）

*ORF clones are provided to Customer under the Sub-License Agreement of RIKEN.