inert dye for real-time pcr

[Tom Knight]

jcww99 <jcww99removethisandthis from .yahoo.com> writes:
> I'm looking for an inert dye to add to my colorless real-time pcr
> mixes to be able to check the performance of a pipetting robot. Of
> course there are commercial solutions like Thermo's Absolute Blue but
> these are not an option. Years ago in this group tatrazine was
> mentioned as a possible dye. Does anyone know more ????

Cresol Red is another option.  Just a quick warning for a problem we
encountered, which is that some of these dyes fluoresce.  This is not
normally a problem, but can completely trash a sequencing reaction if
dye manages to get into the DNA template.  There may be issues with
real time PCR detection as well.