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Alternative to Biotin and Digoxigenin Labelling - The techniques of non radioisotopic labellig have been further expanded and new methods have been devised for attaching other ligands (e.g. hapten determinants, 2, 4-dinitrophenol, arsenate derivatives, etc.) to nucleotides without hampering their ability to be incorporated into DNA.

These alternatives require binding of attached ligands to specific proteins that can be tagged with enzymes or fluorescent molecules. It is possible to monitor many probes simultaneously by using several different ligands since each ligand would yield a different signal.

A chemiluminescent (light emitting) probe system has also been developed in which two different probes complementary to a continuous segment of DNA hybridize to adjacent segments of a gene.

The first label is a chemiluminescent complex that emits light at a specific wavelength; this emission excites the label molecule on the second probe to emit light at a different wave length which can be detected using a photomultiplier device. This process called non-radioactive energy transfer, can occur only if the two probes hybridize correctly and the two labels are close to each other.

This system has great fidelity and provides basic technology for a homogeneous assay. In addition, DNA does not need to be immobilized and no washing steps are necessary which may be an additional advantage for large scale testing.