Bio-rad Laboratories, Inc.

Cindy C T Wan

Xiangdong Meng

Xiaosong Gong

The subject application pertains to compositions and methods for enhancing reverse transcriptase (RT) activity and/or reducing the inhibition of RT by inhibitors, such as formalin, tannic acid and/or heparin. In some embodiments, RT inhibition is reduced by the addition of potassium glutamate, histidine hydrochloride monohydrate, poloxamer 188, or any combination thereof to a reaction mixture comprising a polymerase. In other embodiments, RT is enhanced through the addition of a polyvinyl sulfonic acid sodium salt (PVSA) to a reaction mixture. The subject application also provides oligonucleotide primers for use in the reverse transcription of target sequences and its enhancement. These primers have high GC content or low GC content. Methods of using a RT inhibition reducer or a RT enhancer in a composition with an RNA template and RT improves RT yield, RT sensitivity, or RT tolerance to various chemicals are also provided.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Cindy C T Wan