A colorimetric assay for inorganic pyrophosphate that is also useful for measuring product accumulation in polymerase chain reactions

A novel coupled enzyme assay for measuring inorganic pyrophosphate (PP(i)) in biological samples is described. The total PP(i) is determined by a reaction with inosine 5'-monophosphate, catalyzed by hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase, yielding hypoxanthine and phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate. The hypoxanthine is oxidized to uric acid by xanthine oxidase/xanthine dehydrogenase and can be measured by formation of formazan when a tetrazolium salt is used as the oxidant. The method is also useful for detecting and quantifying PP(i) released from nucleotides during polymerase chain reactions. This rapid and simple method for detecting amplified nucleic acids permits low-cost monitoring by eye or spectrophotometer.