Anchored multiplex amplification on a microelectronic chip array

We have developed a method for anchored amplification on a microchip array that allows amplification and detection of multiple targets in an open format. Electronic anchoring of sets of amplification primers in distinct areas on the microchip permitted primer-primer interactions to be reduced and distinct zones of amplification created, thereby increasing the efficiency of the multiplex amplification reactions. We found strand displacement amplification (SDA) to be ideal for use in our microelectronic chip system because of the isothermal nature of the assay, which provides a rapid amplification system readily compatible with simple instrumentation. Anchored SDA supported multiplex DNA or RNA amplification without decreases in amplification efficiency. This microelectronic chip-based amplification system allows multiplexed amplification and detection to be performed on the same platform, streamlining development of any nucleic acid-based assay.     

核酸恒温扩增技术研究进展

核酸恒温扩增技术在生命科学研究及相关诸多领域已经得到了广泛应用。我们对核酸恒温扩增技术的最新进展作一简要综述,包括环介导恒温扩增、链替代扩增、依赖核酸序列的扩增、滚环扩增、切口酶核酸恒温扩增、依赖解旋酶的恒温扩增、转录依赖的扩增、杂交捕获法、转录介导的扩增等的原理、优缺点及应用。     

Continuous-flow ATP amplification system for increasing the sensitivity of quantitative bioluminescence assay

We constructed a novel ATP amplification reactor using a continuous-flow system, and this allowed us to increase the sensitivity of a quantitative bioluminescence assay by controlling the number of ATP amplification cycles. We previously developed a bioluminescence assay coupled with ATP amplification using a batch system. However, it was difficult to control the number of amplification cycles. In this study, ATP amplification was performed using a continuous-flow system, and significant linear correlations between amplified luminescence and initial ATP concentration were observed. When performing four cycles of continuous-flow ATP amplification, the gradient of amplification was 1.87^N. Whereas the lower quantifiable level was 500 pM without amplification, values as low as 50 pM ATP could be measured after amplification. The sensitivity thus increased 10-fold, with further improvements expected with additional amplification cycles. The continuous-flow system thus effectively increased the sensitivity of the quantitative bioluminescence assay.     

Induction of DNA amplification in the Bacillus subtilis chromosome.

A system allowing the induction of DNA amplification in Bacillus subtilis was developed, based on a thermosensitive plasmid, pE194, stably integrated in the bacterial chromosome. An amplification unit, comprising an antibiotic resistance marker flanked by directly repeated sequences, was placed next to the integrated plasmid. Activation of pE194 replication led to DNA amplification. Two different amplification processes appeared to take place: one increased the copy number of all sequences in the vicinity of the integrated plasmid and was possibly of the onion skin type, while the other increased the copy number of the amplification unit only and generated long arrays of amplification units. These arrays were purified and shown to consist mainly of directly repeated amplification units but to also contain non-linear regions, such as replication forks and recombination intermediates. They were attached to the chromosome at one end only, and were, in general, not stably inherited, which suggests that they are early amplification intermediates. Longer arrays were detected before the shorter ones during amplification. When the parental amplification unit contained repeats which differed by a restriction site the arrays which derived thereof contained in a majority of cases only a single type of repeat. We propose that the amplified DNA is generated by rolling circle replication, and that such a process might underlie a number of amplification events.     

Gene amplification system based on double rolling-circle replication as a model for oncogene-type amplification

Gene amplification contributes to a variety of biological phenomena, including malignant progression and drug resistance. However, details of the molecular mechanisms remain to be determined. Here, we have developed a gene amplification system in yeast and mammalian cells that is based on double rolling-circle replication (DRCR). Cre-lox system is used to efficiently induce DRCR utilizing a recombinational process coupled with replication. This system shows distinctive features seen in amplification of oncogenes and drug-resistance genes: (i) intra- and extrachromosomal amplification, (ii) intensive chromosome rearrangement and (iii) scattered-type amplification resembling those seen in cancer cells. This system can serve as a model for amplification of oncogenes and drug-resistance genes, and improve amplification systems used for making pharmaceutical proteins in mammalian cells.     

Novel signal amplification technology with applications in DNA and protein detection systems.

A non-enzymatic approach to signal amplification has practical advantages over conventional target amplification methods. We have designed a simple, cost-efficient signal amplification system that can be used to enhance the detection of nucleic acids or protein. The signal amplification process requires initial capture of analyte by a specific probe, which, depending on the analyte, can be an oligomer or an antibody. Once the analyte is captured, amplification moieties are applied to significantly enhance the sensitivity of analyte detection. Nucleic acid amplification is typically greater than 1000-fold, increasing the sensitivity of target detection to less than 1 amol/100 microL. This amplification strategy presents a very flexible system with components that are easily altered to accommodate diverse assay requirements.     

Reciprocating-flow ATP amplification system for increasing the number of amplification cycles

We constructed a novel ATP amplification reactor using a reciprocating-flow system to increase the number of ATP amplification cycles without an increase in backpressure. We previously reported a continuous-flow ATP amplification system that effectively and quantitatively amplified ATP and increased the sensitivity of a quantitative bioluminescence assay. However, it was difficult to increase the number of amplification cycles due to backpressure in the system. Because addition of immobilized adenylate kinase (ADK) and pyruvate kinase (PK) columns increased backpressure, the maximum number of ATP amplification cycles within column durability was only 4. In this study, ATP amplification was performed using a reciprocating-flow system, and 10 cycles of ATP amplification could be achieved without an increase in backpressure. As a result, ATP was amplified more than 100-fold after 10 cycles of reciprocating flow. The gradient of ATP amplification was approximately 1.76^N. The backpressure on the columns was 0.03 MPa in 1–10 ATP amplification cycles, and no increases in backpressure were observed.     

纳米金增强复杂体系中PCR扩增低拷贝基因的反应特异性初步研究

目的：利用纳米金颗粒提高复杂体系基因组低拷贝基因PCR扩增的反应特异性。方法：首先,模拟复杂基因组扩增模式体系,以接近单拷贝的λDNA为模板,在PCR过程中加入纳米金颗粒,设计优化实验,以便模拟建立复杂基因组低拷贝目的基因PCR扩增的模式体系。随后,扩增人类基因组的疾病相关的低拷贝基因模板（如人基因组肿瘤坏死因子基因外显子1的380bp）,以检验纳米金优化增强PCR反应特异性的实际效果。结果：在复杂体系基因组的低拷贝基因PCR扩增中,纳米金颗粒能够较好地增强其PCR反应的特异性。结论：初步表明基于纳米金的纳米粒子PCR方法可以对复杂的实际基因组体系低拷贝基因的PCR扩增起到优化作用,这对于PCR反应优化方法的改进、推广具有重要的参考价值。     

RNA amplification, fidelity and reproducibility of expression profiling

We quantitatively address the effect of T7 RNA amplification on expression profiling data, and answer the following questions: (1) What fraction of genes sampled is amplified non-linearly? (2) What is the effect of RNA amplification on comparative expression measurements? (3) If there is amplification bias, is the bias dependent on the degree of amplification or the amount of starting material and (4) Does amplification increase the overall variability of the results? We show that while there is significant amplification bias, the bias is consistent and generally has little effect on array comparisons between amplified samples.     

Characterization of N-myc amplification units in human neuroblastoma cells.

A set of DNA clones comprising 48 independent HindIII fragments (215 kilobases of sequence) was derived from the N-myc amplification unit of the neuroblastoma cell line NGP. These clones were used to investigate N-myc amplification units in NGP cells and 12 primary neuroblastoma tumors. Three parameters were evaluated: (i) the number of rearrangements from germ line configuration that had occurred during the amplification process; (ii) the homogeneity of amplification units within individual tumors; and (iii) the conservation of amplified sequences among different tumors. The results indicated that remarkably few rearrangements had occurred during amplification, that the amplification units within any one tumor were quite homogeneous, and that although each tumor contained a unique pattern of amplified DNA fragments, there was considerable similarity between the amplification units of different tumors. In particular, the amplification units were strikingly similar over a contiguous domain of at least 140 kilobases surrounding the N-myc structural gene.     

等温扩增技术及其结合CRISPR在微生物快速检测中的研究进展

等温扩增技术因其对仪器依赖性低、核酸扩增高效等优势,非常适合于快速检测,已在微生物快速检测领域得到了广泛应用。本文从核酸提取、等温扩增(以环介导等温扩增技术(Loop-mediated isothermal amplification,LAMP)和重组酶聚合酶扩增技术(Recombinase polymerase amplification,RPA)为例)和产物检测角度,就近年来核酸等温扩增技术的发展及其在病原微生物核酸快速检测领域的应用进行综述,并概述了核酸等温扩增技术与CRISPR(Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)基因编辑技术相结合的最新研究成果,为这些新兴技术的研究和未来的发展提供新思路。     

基于PCR的染色体步移中单引物扩增的克服与非特异引物的利用

基于PCR的染色体步移(PCR-Walking)方法已有许多种,包括反向PCR、连接介导的PCR、随机引物PCR等.在众多的方法中,经常存在由通用引物引起的单引物非特异扩增现象.本文综述了连接介导的PCR-Walking中单引物扩增的形成原理及克服方法.克服单引物扩增主要是使接头引物在DNA两端的接头上只有1个结合位点,从而避开单引物扩增.常用的方法有3′端加氨基修饰的不对称接头、泡泡状接头或Y字型接头及单寡核苷酸接头等方法.还介绍了2种利用通用引物非特异扩增克隆目的序列的方法:引物错配法及基于RAPD原理的单引物PCR法.     

Gene amplification in Chinese hamster DNA repair deficient mutants

In order to study the possible relationship between gene amplification and DNA repair we analyzed the amplification of the CAD gene in four mutants hypersensitive to UV light (CHO43RO, CHO7PV, UV5 and UV61) isolated in vitro from Chinese hamster cell lines (CHO-K1 and AA8). These mutants are characterized by different defects in the nucleotide excision repair mechanism and represent complementation groups 1, 9, 2, and 6 respectively. To evaluate the amplification ability of each cell line we measured the rate of appearance of PALA resistant clones with the Luria and Delbrück fluctuation test. Resistance to PALA is mainly due to amplification of the CAD gene. In the mutants CHO43RO, UV5 and CHO7PV we reproducibly found an amplification rate lower than in the parental cell lines (2–5 times), while in UV61 the amplification rate was about 4 times higher. This result indicates that each mutant is characterized by a specific amplification ability and that the unefficient removal of UV induced DNA damage can be associated with either a higher or a lower amplification rate. However, the analysis of randomly isolated CHO-K1 clones with normal UV sensitivity has shown variability in their amplification ability, making it difficult to relate the specific amplification ability of the mutants to the DNA repair defect and suggesting clonal heterogeneity of the parental population.     

Alternative Molecular Tests for Virological Diagnosis

Several nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAATs), particularly PCR and real-time PCR, are currently used in the routine clinical laboratories. Such approaches have allowed rapid diagnosis with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. However, conventional PCR methods have several intrinsic disadvantages such as the requirement for temperature cycling apparatus, and sophisticated and costly analytical equipments. Therefore, amplification at a constant temperature is an attractive alternative method to avoid these requirements. A new generation of isothermal amplification techniques are gaining a wide popularity as diagnostic tools due to their simple operation, rapid reaction and easy detection. The main isothermal methods reviewed here include loop-mediated isothermal amplification, nucleic acid sequence-based amplification, and helicase-dependent amplification. In this review, design criteria, potential of amplification, and application of these alternative molecular tests will be discussed and compared to conventional NAATs.     

PCR amplification on a microarray of gel-immobilized oligonucleotides: detection of bacterial toxin- and drug-resistant genes and their mutations

PCR amplification on a microarray of gel-immobilized primers (microchip) has been developed. One of a pair of PCR primers was immobilized inside a separate microchip polyacrylamide porous gel pad of 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.02 (or 0.04) micron in size and 0.2 (or 0.4) nL in volume. The amplification was carried out simultaneously both in solution covering the microchip array and inside gel pads. Each gel pad contained the immobilized forward primers, while the fluorescently labeled reverse primers, as well as all components of the amplification reaction, diffused into the gel pads from the solution. To increase the amplification efficiency, the forward primers were also added into the solution. The kinetics of amplification was measured in real time in parallel for all gel pads with a fluorescent microscope equipped with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The accuracy of the amplification was assessed by using the melting curves obtained for the duplexes formed by the labeled amplification product and the gel-immobilized primers during the amplification process; alternatively, the duplexes were produced by hybridization of the extended immobilized primers with labeled oligonucleotide probes. The on-chip amplification was applied to detect the anthrax toxin genes and the plasmid-borne beta-lactamase gene responsible for bacterial ampicillin resistance. The allele-specific type of PCR amplification was used to identify the Shiga toxin gene and discriminate it from the Shiga-like one. The genomic mutations responsible for rifampicin resistance of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains were detected by the same type of PCR amplification of the rpoB gene fragment isolated from sputum of tuberculosis patients. The on-chip PCR amplification has been shown to be a rapid, inexpensive and powerful tool to test genes responsible for bacterial toxin production and drug resistance, as well as to reveal point nucleotide mutations.