Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!ig!daemon
From: GREENGARD.LEWIS@BIONET-20.ARPA
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
Subject: Labeling probes
Message-ID: <6245@ig.ig.com>
Date: 12 May 88 20:10:10 GMT
Sender: daemon@presto.ig.com
Lines: 12

From: Robert M. Lewis 

Would anyone care to comment on alternatives to radioisotopes for labeling
nucleic acids.  I am currently using the random primer method with 32P-dCTP
(Feinberg and Vogelstein. 1983. Anal. Biochem. 132:6.) to label gel-purified
restriction fragments of plasmid inserts.  I can get high specific activity
and fairly low background with these probes, but the short half-life of 32P
is, of course, a major drawback.  The other major problem is dealing with and
disposing of isotopes.  I hope to receive enough comments to do a side by
side comparison of alternate methods, the results of which I will post on
this board.
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