ANCIENT DNA

[Guy Hoelzer]

In article <cmeghen-171094154018 at gen023.gen.tcd.ie>, cmeghen at mail.tcd.ie
(Ciaran Meghen) wrote:

> QUESTION? What do YOU think of using autoclaving as a technique to wholly
> or partially remove contaminating nucleic acids from solutions. Does it
> work? I do it anyway just because I'm paranoid.
> 
> ************************************************************************
> Chris Troy,           E-mail: catroy at mail.tcd.ie
> Genetics Department,     Phone:  (353)-1-7021265
> Trinity College,         Fax:    (353)-1-6798558
> Dublin 2.
> Ireland.
> *************************************************************************

On the contrary, I have seen autoclaving introduce contaminating DNA on
several occasions (different times, institutions, etc.).  These
contamination problems were solved by avoiding the autoclave altogether for
tips, tubes and solutions that were used in PCR.
-- 
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Guy Hoelzer                                                  
hoelzer at unr.edu
Dept. of Biology
University of Nevada Reno
Reno, NV  89557
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