Applied Biosystems Reagents Improve Data Quality of Real-Time PCR Applications

Applied Biosystems has announced the release of two new application-specific master mix reagents designed to improve data quality of real-time.

The TaqMan® Gene Expression Master Mix and TaqMan® Genotyping Master Mix reagents have been formulated to provide researchers high-quality data, resulting in a better picture of how nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) impact important biological processes.

By matching the right master mix reagent, staple chemical components necessary for performing real-time PCR reactions, with the kind of application for which the reagent was designed, researchers can boost the performance of either single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping or quantitative real-time PCR applications, compared with how these kinds of assays perform with other master mix chemistries.

Applied Biosystems developed the TaqMan Gene Expression Master Mix so that researchers can efficiently and effectively detect a broad range of nucleic acid targets in analyzed samples.

When used in conjunction with TaqMan Gene Expression Assays, this new master mix reagent results in highly-sensitive assays, making it possible for researchers to detect a single copy of target nucleic acid present in a sample; even if that target is a poorly or rarely expressed gene.

Use of highly-sensitive assays helps researchers to better understand how gene activity influences biological processes.

For genotyping applications, the TaqMan Genotyping Master Mix, used in conjunction with TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays, helps researchers to accurately identify DNA sequence variations by generating data with distinct well-separated clusters of different sequence variants.

They can then effectively assess how small variations in DNA sequence impact key biological processes.

For gene expression studies, and other quantitative real-time PCR applications, the TaqMan Gene Expression Master Mix helps researchers to effectively compare changes in the expression levels of genes from a wide variety of samples, including diseased and healthy tissues, which requires efficient use of limited quantities of starting sample.

 Researchers can also accurately differentiate between targets of similar DNA or RNA sequences, and detect two separate DNA targets in the same tube, which increases the number of samples that can be processed in a single experiment.

“The development of these master mixes with new enzymes demonstrates Applied Biosystems’ continued strategic focus on bringing high-quality, application-specific solutions for real-time PCR to market,” said Mark Stevenson, president for Applied Biosystems’ molecular and cell biology division.

“Our customers are continuing to derive new applications from their real-time PCR instrument systems; therefore, it is important that we continue to play a leading role in providing them with differentiated consumables that are tailored to their specific scientific objectives.”