Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Auburn University

Mark R Liles

Robert M Goodman

Robert M Corn

Joseph Kloepper

Bryce P Nelson

Kendra Frederick

Disclosed is a method to detect unlabeled nucleic acids (DNA and/or RNA) in a taxa, species, and organelle-specific fashion using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging. Taxa-specific, species-specific, or organelle-specific nucleic acids are affixed to an SPR-suitable substrate. A nucleic acid sample to be analyzed is then contacted with the SPR-substrate and the substrate analyzed to determine the presence or absence of specific hybridization between the nucleic acids bound to the substrate and the nucleic acids contained in the sample. The method does not require that either the bound nucleic acids nor the sample nucleic acids be labeled. The method can be used to identify the source of nucleic acids, their sequence, as well as to identify organisms and place them within a given taxonomic hierarchy.

Label-free detection of nucleic acids via surface plasmon resonance

Described herein is a method for selectively inhibiting the amplification of a specific DNA template during a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In particular, the method is useful when the sequences of the desired and undesired DNA templates are similar. A set of universal primers binds to both the desired and undesired DNA templates during a PCR, resulting in the amplification of their DNA sequences. The method targets the undesired DNA template with three sets of oligonucleotide primers, one set of which is terminally modified to both prevent primer extension and increase the primer-template binding affinity. The result of these terminal modifications is the specific inhibition of the PCR amplification of the undesired DNA template, allowing the preferential amplification of the desired DNA templates.

Template-specific termination in a polymerase chain reaction

Growing community of inventors

Madison, WI, United States of America

Mark R Liles