|
|
Save time and money by ordering primers in plates
| Summary: As DNA oligonucleotide synthesis gets increasingly cheaper, folks are purchasing larger and larger quantities of primers. In the industrial scale and ''high-throughput'' style labs, the primers arrive in 96-well or 384-well plates -- ready for the lab's robots and multichannel pipettors. However, on many occasions I've found traditional wetlab experimenters are still using large numbers of single primer tubes for some experiments. Most companies will provide primers in plates if you order more than 24 at once; it's definitely worth considering the plate option even if you're not the high-throughput type, because it can save you money, experimental errors, and a whole lot of time. |
Article created: Mar 18, 2008
Article by: Jeremiah Faith
How to order primers in plates  Click image for larger
Positive features of ordering primers in plates At least in the US, ordering oligonucleotide primers in plates is much cheaper than ordering them in tubes (you should get a discount of 25-60% compared to tubes). If you order the primers resuspended, they arrive on dry ice ready to thaw and use – saving you tons of time you'd normally spend adding TE or water to the lypholized primers.The primers in a plate are much easier to find than those in a single tube, because you generally remember which plate the primer is in (just like you generally remember what freezer box you primer tubes are in); once you know the plate the primer is in, you need only look up the location of the primer in the plate using the form that comes with the primer plate.
As long as your destination for the primer (e.g. PCR) is also in a plate or PCR-strip format, the oligo plate will also help reduce your systematic pipetting error (i.e. putting the primer in the wrong tube). And when such errors occur, they usually occur in multiples of 8 or 12 (i.e. the height or width of the plate), so they are easy to detect. For PCR primers it's very useful to order the forward primer and the reverse primer on adjacent rows (e.g. primer1 forward A1, primer1 reverse B1; etc...) or on same well in two different plates (e.g. primer1 forward A1 plate1; primer1 reverse A1 plate2). If you know you only want them together as a pair, many DNA oligo synthesis companies will send them to you premixed if you order them properly and specify you want them mixed.
Finally, for those with programming skills, being allowed to email the primer files to the synthesis company in Excel format allows for easy automation; just print out a tab delimited file and paste them into the excel file and you've a pretty scalable level of automation.
Negative features of ordering primers in plates At least with IDT, primers ordered in plates take a couple days longer than those ordered in tubes (unless you order a massively expensive HOTPlate). Primer plates aren't the best option if you only want access to a well or two of the plate at a time, because you must melt the entire plate even if you only want to access a single well. Freeze-thaw cycles degrade the primers, and most DNA synthesis companies suggest limiting the number of freeze-thaw cycles to five or less over the life of the primer.
Finally, if you lose the documentation telling which primer is in which lane – you're done. You'll have two sets of documentation: 1) the Excel file you send to the synthesis company and 2) the file (or print out) they send back. If you lose both of these, you have no way to determine which primer is in which well. So keep good records. Conclusions Ordering primers in plates can save time, money, and reduce the error rate of your experiments. If you're going to be ordering lots of primers over the course of your project, you should consider negotiating a cheaper price from your DNA synthesis sales rep, as there is often quite a bit of wiggle room on price if you're a frequent customer.
|
|
|
Subscribe in a reader
