a good alternative to wax for hot starts...

[Basavaraju Shankarappa]

	For all those hot-start buffs and those like me who would like to 
avoid using gunky stuff like wax for hot-start, there is another alternative.

	I just saw this article in ClontechNIQUES and I think it is quite
neat.  Clontech now sells an antibody to Taq that binds to the enzyme and 
inactivates it until a temperature of about 70C.  The comparative
results with hot start sure looks good.  

	The cost, as usual, is pretty high.  Antibody for 200 reactions cost
$125 and for 25 reactions cost 39 bucks. 
 
The reference is Findlay, J.B. et al., Clin Chem 39: 1927.

	I am interested in finding out if anyone has already used this system
and whether it has worked well.

Raj Shankarappa
bsh at med.pitt.edu