MRNA display

mRNA display is a display technique used to perform in vitro protein, and/or peptide evolution to create molecules that can bind to a desired ligand. The process results in translated peptides or proteins that are associated with their mRNA progenitor, via a puromycin linkage, which is used, as a complex, to bind to an immobilized ligand in a selection step (affinity chromatography). The mRNA-protein fusions that bind well are then reverse transcribed to cDNA and their sequence amplified via a polymerase chain reaction. The end result is a nucleotide sequence that encodes peptides which tightly bind molecules of interest.

Technical details
A synthetic mRNA with puromycin at its 3' end forms an mRNA-peptide fusion that is purified by affinity chromatography. By linking the peptide to its own mRNA, a molecular rosetta stone is created.

Competing methods for protein evolution in vitro are phage display, yeast display, bacterial display, and ribosome display.