Use of extremely short Forster resonance energy transfer probes in real-time polymerase chain reaction.

ABSTRACT: Described in the article is a new approach for the sequence-specific detection of nucleic acids in real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide probes. The method is based on the production of PCR amplicons, which fold into dumbbell-like secondary structures carrying a specially designed 'probe-luring' sequence at their 5' ends. Hybridization of this sequence to a complementary 'anchoring' tail introduced at the 3' end of a fluorescent probe enables the probe to bind to its target during PCR, and the subsequent probe cleavage results in the florescence signal. As it has been shown in the study, this amplicon-endorsed and guided formation of the probe-target duplex allows the use of extremely short oligonucleotide probes, up to tetranucleotides in le

SUBMITTER: Kutyavin IV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3814350 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature