Profound inhibition of the PCR step of CF V3 multiplex PCR/OLA assay by the use of UV-irradiated plastic reaction tubes.

Supplies, such as bags of plastic reaction tubes, are sometimes left in the laminar flow hoods unintentionally while the ultraviolet (UV) lamp is illuminated overnight. In addition, UV irradiation is used for sterilization and amplicon inactivation to avoid contamination. The oligonucleotide ligation assay (OLA) is a unique approach to mutation detection of point mutations, small deletions, and small insertions. Recently, we encountered problems with this assay and peak heights were much lower or disappeared. After going through systemic trouble-shooting, we found that profound inhibition of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) step of CF V3 multiplex PCR/OLA assay by the use of UV-irradiated plastic reaction tubes. When UV-irradiated tubes used throughout the assay, tubes exposed for 8 weeks at 0.7 m from the UV source gave a reduction of 60% and 67% in the assay products on the basis of sum of peak heights. Tubes exposed for 3 weeks at 0.1 m from the UV source totally eliminated assay product yielding no peaks. Further experiments showed that the inhibition happened mostly in the PCR step. Burgess and Hall had reported that inhibition of PCR of human glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase transcripts after UV irradiating the tubes. This showed that the inhibition was not assay-specific. The reason that the inhibition of PCR was more profound could be due to a multiplex PCR assay and small reaction volume. The mechanism of PCR inhibition by UV irradiation is not clear. In conclusion, plastic reaction tubes intended for PCR/OLA assays should not be exposed to UV.

Photochemically-activated probes of protein-protein interactions.

The activity of light-activatable ("caged") compounds can be temporally and spatially controlled, thereby providing a means to interrogate intracellular biochemical pathways as a function of time and space. Nearly all caged peptides contain photocleavable groups positioned on the side chains of key residues. We describe an alternative active site targeted strategy that disrupts the interaction between the protein target (SH2 domain, kinase, and proteinase) and a critical amide NH moiety of the peptide probe.

One-step immobilization of poly(dT)-modified DNA onto non-modified plastic substrates by UV irradiation for microarrays.

Previously, 'DNattach', an alternative DNA immobilization system for attaching modified oligonucleotide probes onto a gold surface by UV irradiation that can be used in various DNA microarray applications including gene expression analysis, was developed. Attached to the gold surface, the modified probes have been shown to successfully detect synaptogenesis in the developing mouse cerebellum. In this study, this technology to immobilize modified oligonucleotide probes onto three different non-modified plastic surfaces in a microarray format has been further expanded. Using this system, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping of both oligonucleotide and PCR product targets has been successfully performed and it has also been shown that the probes immobilized on the slides can be used efficiently in hybridization experiments. Furthermore, it has been shown that probe concentrations of only 1-5 microM are sufficient for hybridization and that this immobilization method provides hybridization signals greater than those of conventional immobilization techniques.

Analysis of the quality of contact-pin fabricated oligonucleotide microarrays.

As the quality of microarrays is critical to successful experiments for data consistency and validity, a reliable and convenient quality control method is needed. We describe a systematic quality control method for large-scale genome oligonucleotide arrays. This method is comprised of three steps to assess the quality of printed arrays. The first step involves assessment of the autofluorescence property of DNA. This step is convenient, quick to perform, and allowed reuse of every array. The second step involves hybridization of arrays with Cy3-labeled 9-mer oligonucleotide target to assess the quality and stability of oligonucleotides. Because this step consumed arrays, one or two arrays from each batch were used to complement the quality control data from autofluorescence. The third step involves hybridization of arrays from every batch with transcripts derived from two cell lines to assess data consistency. These hybridizations were able to distinguish two closely related tissue samples by identifying a cluster of 20 genes that were differently expressed in U87MG and T98G glioblastoma cell lines. In addition, we standardized two parameters that significantly enhanced the quality of arrays. We found that longer pin contact time and crosslinking oligonucleotides at 400 mJ/cm(2) were optimal for the highest hybridization intensity. Taken together, these results indicate that the quality of spotted oligonucleotide arrays should be assessed by at least two methods, autofluorescence and 9-mer hybridization before arrays are used for hybridization experiments.

Effects of stray light on the fidelity of photodirected oligonucleotide array synthesis.

Fabrication of high density oligonucleotide arrays using metal on glass photolithographic masks is inflexible and expensive. Maskless methods using computer-controlled projection have been proposed and implemented, but associated stray light effects on photodirected oligonucleotide synthesis and their analysis have not been reported. We have developed a theoretical approach: it predicts that the stray light content of the output of digital micromirror devices and other spatial light modulators of similar performance (contrast ratio approximately 400) will cause extensive random base insertions. For example, use of a digital micromirror device for synthesis of a 20mer array will result in the majority of oligonucleotide chains being 21mers or 22mers. This chain lengthening effect of stray light would not be preventable when synthesis involves a directly photosensitive 5'-blocking group. If the 5'-blocking group is acid labile and released with photogenerated acid, the presence of low concentrations of weak base will prevent the effect of stray light. We have demonstrated experimentally the anticipated chain lengthening effect of stray light on photoacid-dependent synthesis of oligonucleotides and prevention of the effect by low concentrations of n-octylamine. The application of these findings should facilitate the development of maskless fabrication and availability of high density and high fidelity user-designed arrays for research applications.

Laser-induced photo-cross-linking of cisplatin-modified DNA to HMG-domain proteins.

Laser-induced photo-cross-linking was investigated for DNA, modified with cisplatin at specific sites, bound to structure-specific recognition domains of proteins in the high-mobility group (HMG) class. The efficiency of photo-cross-linking depends on the wavelength and power of the laser, the nature of the protein domain, and the oligodeoxyribonucleotide sequences flanking the platinated site. Introduction of 5-iodouridine at thymine sites of the oligodeoxyribonucleotide as an additional photoreactive group did not increase the photo-cross-linking yield. Formation of platinum-mediated DNA-DNA interstrand cross-linking observed previously upon irradiation with 302 nm light [Kane, S. A., and Lippard, S. J. (1996) Biochemistry 35, 2180-2188] was significantly reduced with laser irradiation. HMG1 domain B is superior to domain A for platinum-mediated photo-cross-linking, a result attributed to the different positioning of the proteins with respect to the platinum adduct and the greater ability of domain B to access photolabilized platinum in the major groove. Studies with proteins containing specifically mutated amino acids, and with DNA probes in which the sequences flanking the platinum cross-link site were varied, suggest that the most effective photo-cross-linking occurs for protein domains bound symmetrically and flexibly to cisplatin-modified DNA. The thermodynamic equilibrium between the protein-platinated DNA complex and its components, revealed in gel electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs), is significantly shifted to the right upon irreversible photo-cross-linking. Thus, only upon photo-cross-linking can the interaction of cisplatin-DNA 1,3-intrastrand d(GpTpG) or interstrand cross-links with HMG1 domain B protein be detected. Photo-cross-linking is thus an effective tool for investigating the interaction of cisplatin-modified DNA with damage-recognition proteins under heterogeneous conditions such those in cell extracts or living cells.

Two wavelength femtosecond laser induced DNA-protein crosslinking.

Nucleic acid-protein interactions are essential for storage, reproduction and expression of genetic information. Biochemical methods, such as dimethyl sulfate genomic footprinting, have been developed to study stable protein-DNA interactions in vivo and chemical crosslinking has been used for less stable interactions, but the chemical agents are slow, damage cells and perturb native equilibria. To avoid these perturbations, UV laser crosslinking offers an alternative, although the energies required for significant crosslinking cause extensive DNA damage. We find that a combination of femtosecond laser pulses at two different wavelengths, in the UV and the visible range, increases the crosslinking efficiency while minimizing DNA damage. This technique also allowed us to directly measure the singlet S1lifetime of native DNA (tauS1 = 3.2 +/- 0.2 ps), which is mainly determined by the lifetime of thymine [tauS1 = 2.8 +/- 0.4 ps for (dT)16], the photochemically most reactive base. Our results suggest that two wavelength femtosecond laser pulses are well suited for the identification of transcription factors interacting with defined sequences and for studying the kinetics of protein-nucleic acid interactions in intact cells.