Acetylated bovine serum albumin differentially inhibits polymerase chain reaction in microdevices

• Main Authors: Ramalingam, Naveen, Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi, Gong, Thomas Hai-Qing
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering; Polymers; Amplicons
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90215; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47244
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) is widely used as an additive in polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based microfluidic devices to passivate reactors and alleviate nucleic-acid amplification. BSA is available commercially in two types: either acetylated or non-acetylated. A survey of literature indicates that both types of BSA are used in PCR-based microfluidic devices. Our study results reveal that the use of acetylated BSA in PCR micro-devices leads to differential inhibition of PCR, compared to non-acetylated BSA. This result is noticed for the first time, and the differential inhibition generally goes un-noticed, as compared to complete PCR inhibition.