Bovine Serum Albumin in PCR

[Michael Kertesz]

jenova at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Can anyone tell me what the purpose of bovine serum albumin in the PCR
> reaction could be? This reagent is listed in published paper on genotyping
> of Clostridium difficile. Also, how much of this reagent should I add to
> the PCR reaction mixture?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Jenny Williams
> Southampton PHLS

BSA is good for sopping up all kinds of junk and trace impurities. I use 
it routinely in all my restrictions and ligations for this reason. 
Presumably it's in the PCR reaction for the same reason. 

By the way, a recent paper showed that serum albumins also work better 
than catalytic antibodies at the reactions that the CA's were designed to 
do. BSA can do (almost) anything....

regards



Michael Kertesz

ETH-Microbiology,
ETH-Zentrum/LFV,
CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland

tel: +41-1-632 3357
fax: +41-1-632 1148
e-mail: kertesz at micro.biol.ethz.ch