It’s 3CR Bioscience’s 6th anniversary, and to celebrate this milestone, we thought it was a good time to look back at some key dates in the development of allele-specific PCR, the technology at the core of our PACE® genotyping product range.
Allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) is a widely used molecular biology technique that facilitates the identification of specific alleles within a mixed population of DNA. Since its first description in scientific literature, modifications and improvements have been implemented, leading to the availability of commercially accessible allele-specific detection systems. The allele-specific detection systems currently on the market exhibit high sensitivity and specificity, making them the preferred technology for detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), Indels, and other genomic variations. These systems only require short sequence information flanking the variant of interest and either a FRET-capable fluorescent plate reader for endpoint measurement or a qPCR machine.
Evolving from the initial probe-based systems like TaqMan™, PACE® genotyping chemistry represents a new generation of allele-specific PCR-based detection systems. It takes advantage of a universal reporting mechanism to eliminate the need for expensive labelled probes.The universal reporting system offers revolutionary cost benefits for genotyping projects of any size. PACE®, created by the developers of KASP™, is the latest iteration of allele-specific PCR, established as a new-generation PCR-genotyping technology with broader adaptability to applications such as marker-assisted selection.
PACE genotyping chemistry offers superior performance with crude DNA samples and provides multiplexing capabilities, the option to observe real-time curves, and one-step genotyping direct from RNA. Importantly, in addition to its enhanced applicability, PACE genotyping reagents remain fully compatible with existing KASP and Amplifluor assays/markers.
In conclusion, allele-specific PCR has undergone significant advancements since its first description in 1989. With the development of new and improved allele-specific detection systems, the latest being PACE genotyping chemistry, researchers now have affordable and accessible tools for the analysis of polymorphisms within DNA and RNA samples, using any qPCR machine or thermal cycler alongside a fluorescent plate reader.
