Product ReviewsNew England BioLabs Antarctic Phosphatase Removal of terminal phosphates from nucleic acids DNA phosphatases such as calf intestinal phosphatase (CIP) and shrimp alkaline phosphatase (SAP) are often used to reduce auto-ligation of cut vector DNA when attempting to ligate in an insert. This has the advantage of reducing the number of clones that carry vector, but no insert following, transformation. However, when using these enzymes, a purification step must be introduced to remove the phosphatase prior to ligation, as its presence inhibits the action of ligating enzymes. Antarctic phosphatase performs exactly the same function as these enzymes but has the ability to be heat-inactivated in 5 minutes. This removes the need for the purification step associated with CIP and SAP. Antarctic phosphatase can be used in any NEBuffer (including EcoRI and BamHI unique buffers) by adding the appropriate volume of 10x Antarctic phosphatase buffer directly to the restriction enzyme reaction. This enzyme can also be used for other phosphatase applications such as preparation of DNA for 5'end labeling. Overall, Antarctic phosphatase is a superior enzyme to CIP or SAP as it can be heat inactivated, saving time and improving yield. It can also be used in a wider range of buffers than the CIP enzyme making it a more flexible product. Review by jcross |
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