Aminoallyl nucleotide

Finally the nitrogenous base and number of phosphates are indicated (i.e. aa-UTP = aminoallyl uridine triphosphate).

The goal of combining fluorescence and nucleic acids has been to provide a non-isotopic tag that is detectable to study DNA or RNA.

This type of labeling allows scientists to study DNA or RNA in their structure, function, or formation with other nucleic acids.

[2] As instrumentation and technologies become more advanced in the field of DNA microarray, better reagents and techniques will be needed to further scientific studies.

Fluorescent labeling with Cy3 was shown to be more insufficient and skew results; the method of aminoallyl nucleotide incorporation was opted instead.

Aminoallyl NTPs are used for indirect DNA labeling in PCR, nick translation, primer extensions and cDNA synthesis.

[13] These labeled NTPs are helpful because of their application in molecular biology labs where they do not have the capacity to handle radioactive material.

After the enzymatic addition of the NTPs, amine reactant fluorescent dyes can be added for detection of the DNA molecule.

[15] Another process which uses aminoallyl labeling is NASBA ( Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification), a highly sensitive technique for amplifying RNA.