The invention relates to a process, a combination of means for isolating nucleic acid from a nucleic acid-containing starting material and a testkit in order to amplify the nucleic acid obtained by said process. More in particular, the invention relates to a process and a kit for isolating nucleic acid from a nucleic acid-containing biological material such as whole blood, blood serum, urine, feces, cell cultures and the like.

Methods are provided for enhanced specificity and sensitivity of nucleic acid amplification. The methods are simplified nested amplification procedures wherein both inner and outer primer pairs are present in the amplification reaction mixture. According to the methods, the thermocycling profile, as well as the sequences, length, and concentration of amplification primers, is modified to regulate which primers are annealed and extended on the target during any particular amplification cycle. The...

A method for electrophoresis of nucleic acid fragments present in the solution which contains an amount, e.g., 0.2% or more, of a reagent, e.g., glycerol, dithiothreitol (DTT) and trehalose or other sugars, which interact to form a complex with borate or boric acid. The method includes applying the solution to an electrophoretic gel and electrophoresing those fragments into the gel in the presence of a buffer lacking boric acid, or a derivative thereof, which forms a chelate complex with the rea...

The invention is a method for generating nucleic acid sequences ends which comprises; (a) hybridizing a primer to a nucleic acid sequence, (b) hybridizing a primer to the nucleic acid sequence in (a) located 5' to the primer in (a), and (c) polymerizing both primers so that the primer in (a) is displaced from the nucleic acid sequence. The invention provides a method for generating target nucleic acid sequences for subsequent amplification. The method is applicable to both DNA and RNA.

Methods and compounds for the preparation of nucleic acid samples. Polymerase inhibitors are treated so as to allow for amplification of nucleic acid from biological sources, including whole blood.

An improved electrophoresis apparatus for nucleic acid fragments in which nucleic acid fragments are separated in the order of their molecular weight in an electrophoresis cell using an electrophoretic gel for determining the base sequence of a nucleic acid, the improvement comprising a nucleic acid fragment specimen supply section for supplying the nucleic acid fragments to the electrophoresis cell, disposed thereover a molecular sieving membrane having a predetermined degree of molecular perme...

The invention teaches a method and kit for purifying nucleic acid, such as DNA, from a sample, such as lysed cell or tissue sample. A sample is applied to an anionic exchange matrix column uniformly distributing the sample therein. The column bed is then washed with a weak ionic salt solution which is then removed. The anionic exchange material is optionally primed with an amount strong ionic salt solution which is insufficient to elute the nucleic acid from the column. The priming solution is t...

Nucleic acid hybridizaiton probes are provided which have sequences complementary to sequences of segments in bovine male-specific DNA and are suitable for sexing bovine embryos at the time of embryo transfer with nearly 100% accuracy.

A detection probe comprising a hybridizable single stranded portion of nucleic acid connected with a non-hybridizable, single or double stranded nucleic acid portion, the non-hybridizable portion preferably including a recognition site for a particular protein.

The present invention relates to a process for the isolation of protein from microbial cells. The microbial cells are subjected to a treatment to disrupt the cell walls thereby producing a cellular debris fraction and a fraction containing protein and nucleic acid. The two fractions are separated and the fraction containing the protein and nucleic acid is treated with a chelating agent at a pH in the range of 5.5 to 7.0. The resulting solution is passed through an anion exchange column which sel...