Abstract Various PCR-based genome-walking methods have been developed to acquire unknown flanking DNA sequences. However, the specificity and efficacy levels, and the operational processes, of the available methods are unsatisfactory. This work proposes a novel walking approach, termed differential annealing-mediated racket PCR (DAR-PCR). The key to DAR-PCR is the use of primer-mediated intra-strand annealing (ISA). An ISA primer consists of a 5’ root homologous to the known sequence and a heterologous 3’ bud. In the...