Empirical Bioscience this week introduced FlashTaq Hot-Start Taq DNA polymerase, a chemically-modified Taq polymerase designed to reduce non-specific amplification in PCR.
The enzyme offers fewer contamination issues and fast activation time, according to the company. Under standard hot start conditions the enzyme can be activated and it recovers both 5'-3' polymerase and 5'-exonuclease activities within two minutes versus the ten minutes of activation time required by many competing enzymes.
"Unlike traditional non-hot start Taq, which can become active at room temperature and begin to amplify non-specifically and form primer-dimers, FlashTaq will not become active until the temperature and time threshold has been reached, thus reducing the likelihood of non-specific amplification and primer-dimer formation," Pushpaja Dodla a molecular biologist with Empirical Bioscience, said in a statement.
In addition to its stability and rapid activation time, other factors help FlashTaq streamline studies, including the type of modifying reagent that it uses, Empire said. The enzyme in FlashTaq has a reduced risk of contamination because it has been chemically as opposed to antibody-modified. Enzymes that are antibody-modified are highly susceptible to contamination from the organism in which they are produced, the company said.