Abstract

Aids to DNA synthesis,repair, amplification and the rest.

PowerScript is a point mutant of Moloney murine leukaemia virus (MMLV) reverse transcriptase (RT). This enzyme lacks RNase H activity but retains wild-type polymerase activity, so can synthesize longer cDNA fragments than wild-type MMLV RT. Clontech say that PowerScript achieves exceptional performance in long-distance cDNA synthesis — in-house experiments have shown that cDNA fragments of greater than 3 kb are generated. PowerScript preparations exhibit virtually no detectable RNase or DNase activity.

From Eppendorf: it's a phase they go through.

0.5 ml Phase Lock Gel is an additive which substantially accelerates and simplifies phenol or chloroform extractions of nucleic acids. The manufacturers claim that nucleic-acid yields can be increased by 30%, with the biggest benefit in the phenolization of small volumes. DNA or RNA purity is maximized by the elimination of contamination with interphase material. The gel forms a solid barrier between the aqueous and the organic phases during centrifugation, so the organic phase is entirely enclosed by a gel barrier. The aqueous phase can be withdrawn and recovered with a pipette. 0.5 ml Phase lock gel is especially well suited for use with restriction or modification enzymes. Reactions can be carried out in the presence of PLG, stopped by adding phenol or chloroform and immediately extracted.

Cruachem's DNA-synthesis reagents are compatible with Cruachem PS250 and all ABI DNA synthesizers. Cyanoethylphosphor-amidites available include T-CE, dG-CE, dA-CE and dC-CE derivatives. New to the range is acetyl dC-CE phosphoramidite. Both purity and coupling yields are guaranteed at greater than 99%. New specialty synthesis reagents include reverse phosphoramidites, H-phosphonate monomers and reporter molecules.

The StratoSpheres range is produced using copolymerization to generate high-quality resin supports for solid-phase synthesis. The level of loading and homogeneity is tightly controlled directly from the base chloromethyl styrene resin copolymer. These resins are intended to eliminate the side reactions which can introduce anomalous functional groups or additional crosslinking. StratoSpheres resins are sized to produce a uniform particle size distribution for free draining and elimination of blocked filters.

The North2South Chemiluminescent Hybridization and Detection Kit includes optimized hybridization and stringency wash buffers aimed at reducing background problems and inconsistent results associated with chemiluminescent blotting. Post-hybridization time is about 60 minutes, and immediate signal generation and brief film exposure make the North2South system "hours faster than DIG and days faster than ³²P", say Pierce. Sensitivity is equivalent to that obtained with ³²P, but North2South is nonradioactive.

A novel guanidine–detergent lysing mixture is included in DNAzol ES to maximize DNA extraction, and help keep contamination to a minimum during plant genomic DNA isolation. DNAzol ES is a complete and ready-to-use reagent with a protocol that includes optional steps appropriate for more difficult plant tissues. For 1 g of plant tissue, just 3 ml of DNAzol ES is needed for DNA extraction.

Reader Service No. 105Quality checker for cDNA

Vial bodies: Gene Detect, for checking cDNA.

Human Gene Detect and Mouse Gene Detect Kits are recommended as a check on the quality of cDNA synthesis, and cDNA library construction. The kits simplify the detection of tube-to-tube variation in RT-PCR, measuring the purity of RNA and DNA during nucleic-acid isolation procedures. Comparative gene-expression profiles of any interesting target gene can be determined in a single tube or multiple tubes by normalizing with the housekeeping gene ExpressionMers supplied in these kits. Each kit consists of four pairs of ExpressionMers especially for highly abundant, moderately abundant and low abundant genes in order to measure the steady-state expression levels. A single kit provides sufficient reagents to perform a total of 200 reactions.

LatitudeFlowgen

Good gel: Latitude from Flowgen.

Latitude precast horizontal midigels are intended to provide researchers with a fast and reliable separation of DNA of all sizes. Compared to reliant gels, Latitude gels are larger with more sample wells, compatible with multichannel pipette loading. The additional space also enables finer resolution of DNA. Latitude gels are cost effective, as there is no preparation time. They are simple to use and results are ready in less than 30 minutes. Latitude gels are manufactured with molecular biology grade agaroses in a variety of concentrations and buffers.

Novus Biologicals, Inc. has introduced a range of research products especially for the study of DNA repair mechanisms and hypoxia. These tools include antibodies, cDNA and control peptides. Recent releases include antibodies to hOggl (8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase), HIF-2 alpha (EPAS1), and APE/Ref- 1 Monoclonal.

Developed by Finnzymes Oy and distributed in the United States by MJ Research, Inc., the RobusT RT-PCR kit comprises (1) AMV Reverse Transcriptase (AMV-RT), to perform first-strand cDNA reactions at up to 60 °C to melt out any secondary structure. And (2), Dynazyme EXT DNA polymerase, a high performance T. brockianus-based enzyme for high fidelity, highly G+C-rich sequences and long templates. The kit can perform accurate second-strand cDNA synthesis of tough or rare messages up to 6.5 kb.

With cDNA synthesis with long mRNA templates in mind, Promega have added M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase, RNase H Minus, to their range. Other applications for which it is suitable include RT-PCR. M-MLV RT (H-) is available in catalogue package sizes as well as in bulk quantities.

Chromatography gets flash.

This recent addition to the FlashMaster chromatography range is designed to speed up throughput in parallel organic synthesis purification. The system can be coupled to commercial parallel organic synthesizers for online synthesis purification. Features include parallel purification of ten samples, a small footprint, gradient formation capability, and a disposable column system to eliminate downtime caused by emptying and repacking of glass columns.

The NucleoScan 2000 is a DNA fragment analyser based on an ultra-thin gel system. It can be used to perform microsatellite analysis in 30 minutes, run SSCPs in an hour, and mutation screenings in less than 40 minutes. NucleoTech also claim that NucleoScan 2000 can even perform DNA sequencing of up to 300 bases. Peltier-controlled temperature regulation contributes to fast run times. A range of fluorescent labels can be used, including ethidium bromide. NucleoTech's GelExpert software can be used with the 2000 system.

Mutations in the ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) gene cause the rare human disease ataxia telangiectasia. Inherited mutations in this gene lead to a syndrome characterized by neuronal degeneration, oculocutaneous telangiectasia, immune dysfunction, cancer predisposition and premature ageing. Recent work has implicated signalling cascades downstream of ATM which guard genomic integrity after DNA damage. Following double-strand breaks in DNA, p53 becomes induced and is phosphorylated at Ser 15. This process has an absolute requirement for ATM. Upstate Biotechnology now announce the availability of antibody directed against ATM.