Quick and cheap +/- PCR screen?

[Warren Gallin]

In Article <CqurHq.InH at ucdavis.edu>, bagley at fauna.ucdavis.edu wrote:
>Can anyone recommend a quick and cheap procedure to identify whether a PCR
>reaction worked or not?  The size of the product, when it amplifies, is known
>so running it out on a gel seems wasteful.  I suspect diagnostic laboratories
>must have a simple procedure to do this.  Mixing the PCR  reaction together 
>with dilute ethidium bromide and dotting this over UV light does not seem 
>to work well, presumably because unincorporated primers flouresce strongly.
>Any ideas that do not include lots of tips, tubes, or $20,000 equipment will
>be appreciated!
>Mark.

I think that running a gel is quick and cheap.  Demonstrating that you got
the expected product size shows that the reaction worked, which is the
point, not a waste of resources.  You can get a reasonable agarose gel
result in half an hour.  Total DNA 0present in the reaction tube could be
very misleading as to whether the reaction worked.
   Am I missing the point of your question here?

Warren Gallin,
Department of Zoology, University of Alberta
wgallin at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca