A very sensitive and specific method for the random amplification of whole DNA molecules and genomes ranging from 400 base pairs (bp) to 40 Megabase (Mb) is described. This simple, two step PCR (1-3) strategy utilizes tagged random primers that consist of a pool of all possible 3' sequences for binding to the target DNA and a constant 5' region for the detection of incorporated primers. As litt...

A genetic method for sex determination in raccoons was developed based on nucleotide differences of the zinc finger protein genes ZFX and ZFY. Four novel internal primers specific for ZFX or ZFY were designed. PCR amplification using two primer sets followed by agarose gel electrophoresis enabled sex determination. 141-bp and 447-bp bands were in both sex, and 346-bp band was specific only in m...

We developed and evaluated a two-step PCR-based assay with universal primers and genus- or species-specific primers for the detection of the most prevalent bacterial etiologies of otitis media with effusion (OME) in children from Lebanese hospitals. These etiologies included Haemophilus, Streptococcus, and Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis, which were detected in middle-ear effusion (MEE) sam...

New bioactive proteins need to be screened from various microorganisms for the increasing need for industrial and pharmaceutical peptide, proteins, or enzymes. A novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, restriction site-dependent PCR (RSD-PCR), was designed for rapid new genes cloning from genomic DNA. RSD-PCR strategy is based on these principles: (i) restriction sites disperse throughout...

The Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS) has been successfully applied to the detection of apolipoprotein (apo) E genotypes in human DNA extracted from peripheral blood. By using four allele-specific oligonucleotide primers and one common primer, one can identify the three common alleles of the apo E genetic polymorphism, epsilon 2, epsilon 3, and epsilon 4. The system amplifies two ...

We have analyzed the processing of the RNA primer for (+) strand DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase of the human immunodeficiency virus 1. To test for specific RNA cleavage and primer usage, we constructed a 99-base pair RNA-DNA hybrid containing the viral polypurine tract and flanking viral sequences. Although the RNase H activity of reverse transcriptase cleaves the RNA strand into multip...

An essential step in the replication of all retroviruses is the capture of a cellular tRNA that is used as the primer for reverse transcription. The 3'-terminal 18 nucleotides of the tRNA are complementary to the primer binding site (PBS). Moloney murine leukemia virus (MuLV) preferentially captures tRNA(Pro). To investigate the specificity of primer selection, the PBS of MuLV was altered to be...

An essential pre-requisite to perform sound quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays is to design outstanding primer pairs. This means they must have a good efficiency and be not prone to produce multiple amplicons or primer dimer products. To circumvent these issues, several softwares are available to help primer design. Although satisfactory computer-aided primer design ...

Efficiency and specificity of PCR amplification is dependent on several parameters, such as amplicon length, as well as hybridization specificity and melting temperature of primer oligonucleotides. Primer design is thus of critical importance for the success of PCR experiments, but can be a time-consuming and repetitive task, for example when large genomic regions are to be scanned for the pres...