so how do blunt ends stick together? - (Nov/01/2006 )
trying to understand something here. so i blunt ended ok, but how are they supposed to stick together after ligation? i mean there are no bases complimentary... 
what do u mean kathy!!
isn't the phosphodiester bond will link each nucleotide to the next one at the same strand! 
probably blind luck.
My thinking is that the ligase enzyme binds and form a diphosphate bond on the 5' end like normal and "catches" any passing 3' end.
My thinking is that the ligase enzyme binds and form a diphosphate bond on the 5' end like normal and "catches" any passing 3' end.
may be it's the attraction between phosphate and an OH!!
but this is temporary..
Blunt end ligations are much more difficult to achieve than a typical 5'/3' ligation because of the lack of overhanging, complementary ends. To get a successful blunt end ligation, you need to have 3 things come together at once.
First, the two ends must come in contact with each other.
Second, there needs to be enough momentum in the collision to temporarily attach the two ends together (probably from the phosphate/OH interaction strawberry mentioned).
Finally, the ligase itself needs to be present in order to finish the phosphodiester bonds between the base pairs, making a final ligated product.
You have probably noticed that the transformation effiency of a blunt end is much lower than a typical transformation--simply because the chance of having all three event occur simultaneously is rather low. I hope this helps to explain what goes on!