The present invention provides methods for determining the presence of immobilized nucleic acid employing unsymmetrical cyanine dyes that are derivatives of thiazole orange, a staining solution and select fluorogenic compounds that are characterized as being essentially non-genotoxic. The methods comprise immobilizing nucleic acid, single or double stranded DNA, RNA or a combination thereof, on a solid or semi solid support, contacting the immobilized nucleic acid with an unsymmetrical cyanine dye compound and then illuminating the immobilized nucleic acid with an appropriate wavelength whereby the presence of the nucleic acid is determined. The cyanine dye compounds are typically present in an aqueous staining solution comprising the dye compound and a tris acetate or tris borate buffer wherein the solution facilitates the contact of the dye compound and the immobilized nucleic acid. Typically the solid or semi-solid support is selected from the group consisting of a polymeric gel, a membrane, an array, a glass bead, a glass slide, and a polymeric microparticle. Preferably, the polymeric gel is agarose or polyacrylamide. The methods employing the non-genotoxic compounds represent an improvement over commonly used methods employing ethidium bromide wherein the present methods retain the advantages of ethidium bromide, ease of use and low cost, but without the disadvantageous, known mutagen requiring special handling and waste procedures.
本发明提供了利用非对称
氰基
染料(
噻唑橙的衍
生物)、染色溶液和特征为基本无遗传毒性的精选致
氟化合物来确定固定化核酸存在的方法。这些方法包括将核酸、单链或双链 DNA、RNA 或它们的组合固定在固体或半固体支持物上,将固定的核酸与不对称
氰基
染料化合物接触,然后用适当的波长照射固定的核酸,从而确定核酸的存在。
氰基
染料化合物通常存在于
水性染色溶液中,该溶液由
染料化合物和三
醋酸盐或三
硼酸盐缓冲液组成,其中的溶液有利于
染料化合物与固定化核酸的接触。固体或半固体支持物通常选自聚合物凝胶、膜、阵列、
玻璃珠、
玻璃载玻片和聚合物微粒组成的组。聚合物凝胶最好是
琼脂糖或聚
丙烯酰胺。使用无遗传毒性化合物的方法是对使用
溴化乙锭的常用方法的改进,本方法保留了
溴化乙锭的优点,使用方便,成本低,但没有已知诱变剂的缺点,需要特殊的处理和废物处理程序。