( ~20%) 9 Hispanics (~...)Detect Single Nucleotide Sequence Changes with Mx4000 Molecular Beacon,,,Allelic Discrimination Kits

Mutant homozygote (3 A/3 A) is associated with delayed⁹ or accelerated¹⁰ AIDS progression

Conclusions

Molecular beacon technology has the following advantages over many mutation detection techniques. First, the hairpin-shaped probes are more specific than linear probes, such as the TaqMan probe,^16,17 in distinguishing single base pair mismatches. Second, because the test is performed in closed tubes and no post-PCR manipulation of samples is required, the risk of PCR product carry-over contamination is greatly reduced. In addition, the time and effort involved in carrying out the test is significantly reduced. Third, the capability of using two allele-specific molecular beacons in the same PCR solution enables the simultaneous determination of three possible allelic combinations of two sequence variants in target DNA. It also definitively discriminates a true negative result from a false negative result due to PCR failure. Thus, the hairpin-shaped fluorescent probes are particularly useful for high-throughput mutation detection and genotyping assays.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following: Cindy WalkerPeach, Beti Belachew, Jeff Strauss, Peter Pingerelli, and Dwight Dubois of BioCrest (Austin, Texas) for providing DNA samples, comparing genotyping results, and offering suggestions; Michelle Cayouette, Ali Mousavi, Jane Moores, Haoqiang Huang, Jason Zhang, Jack Anderson, Lisa Grismer, Ronda Allen, SanDEe Soares, Connie Hansen, Becky Mullinax, and Joe Sorge of Stratagene; and Sanjay Tyagi of the Public Health Research Institute in New York for discussions, suggestions, and reagents.

<
'"/>

Source: