New primer design software and bisulphite conversion kit from Applied Biosystems to simplify DNA methylation research

Applied Biosystems has introduced its Methyl Primer Express® Software, a free software tool that rapidly automates the design of methylation-specific PCR or bisulphite sequencing primers, and the methylSEQr™ Bisulphite Conversion Kit, a set of prepackaged reagents for rapid bisulphite conversion.

Together, these products simplify applications such as bisulphite sequencing and fragment analysis in DNA methylation experiments, helping researchers to further their understanding of this process in the genetic basis of complex diseases, such as cancer.

Designing sequence-specific DNA methylation experiments can be laborious and time-consuming, with issues such as non-specific primer amplification and mis-priming. Methyl Primer Express automates the essential steps involved in under five minutes to generate high quality sequencing and PCR designs that can be seamlessly integrated into DNA sequencing and fragment analysis follow-on experiments using Applied Biosystems’ flexible product portfolio. The software is available as a free download on the article webpage.

The Applied Biosystems methylSEQr Bisulphite Conversion Kit allows the comparison of sodium bisulphite-treated DNA sequences with sequences from untreated genomic DNA, using a straightforward procedure for the precise identification of methylation patterns. PCR amplicons generated after bisulphite conversion can be sequenced directly, or cloned and then sequenced.