PCR Artifact?

[f.r.byrne]

I agree - almost certainly a primer dimer
check their asize and have a good guess at how big the smear
product is.
So long as you get your product, probably doesn't matter



FERGUS
uNIVERSITY OF aBERDEEN


Steven Sullivan (sullivan at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu) wrote:
: Gordon Betts (betts at orion.etsu.edu) wrote:
: : I just ran a gel of my PCR product and I'm getting a faint smear
: : at the bottom at around 100 bp size. Hardly the 2000 bp I want.
: : Is this some kind of artifact or am I getting a short cDNA?
: : Thanks,
: : Gordon


: how big are your primers?  is the smear really 100 bp or is it smaller?
: smears at the bottom are usually either primer-dimers or unincorporated 
: nucleotides.