metabion is proud to offer a novel class of modified oligonucleotides improving hybridization properties of primers and probes.
Zip nucleic acids (ZNAs) are oligonucleotides conjugated with cationic spermine units that increase affinity for their target by decreasing electrostatic repulsion between negatively charged anionic single strand Nucleic Acids to improve hybridization, thus enhancing and accelerating target recognition.
The possibility of modulating the global charge of the ZNA oligonucleotide-oligocation conjugates by the number of cationic spermine moieties attached to the Nucleic Acid oligomer is key to easily predict melting temperature of ZNA-DNA/ZNA-RNA hybrids. Tm increases linearly with the length of the oligocation.
ZNAs were shown to enable specific and sensitive reactions when used as primers for PCR and Reverse Transcription. Moreover ZNA probes provide broad flexibility in assay design and represent an effective alternative to Minor Groove Binder (MGB)- and Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA)-containing oligonucleotides.
... featuring
- enhanced/accelerated target recognition
- increased sensitivity
- high specificity
- increased Tm for short probes
- improved quenching for long probes
- increased flexibility in terms of
- efficiency at low oligo concentration
- efficiency at high annealing temperatures
- Mg2+ concentration adjustment
- design/sequence composition constraints
... providing for
- efficient mismatch/SNP/allelic discrimination
- earlier Ct values
- improved quantification accuracy of low abundant transcripts
- improved RNA to cDNA conversion
- higher signal level
... hence qualifying for
a wide range of Nucleic Acid-based applications like
- PCR / real-time PCR/RT-PCR
- Microarrays/Capture probing
- Northern Blot / Dot Blot
- In Situ Hybridization (ISH)
Scan - Click - Zip and Stick – that´s the way it works …
Movie
What we offer
Our primer-portfolio:
- 5 standard scales (yield ranges in nmoles)
- 2 standard ZNA building block modifications: ZNA-4 & ZNA-5 (fine tunes and increases Tm by approx. 8-15°C)
- “Add-on“ modification prices for ZNA building blocks
- Standard length range 15-40 bases
- RP-HPLC purification included
Our probes-portfolio:
- 5 standard scales (yield ranges in nmoles)
- Standard ZNA-4 building block (between 3´ DNA end and Quencher)
- Various Reporter/Quencher combinations at 3 complexity/pricing levels (see table below)
- Fixed prices per probe according to scale and pricing level
- Standard length range 15-40 bases
- RP-HPLC purification and ESI-ToF analysis included
References and links
*1) Paris, C. et al. (2010) Zip nucleic acids are potent hydrolysis probes for quantitative PCR. Nucl. Acids Res., doi: 10.1093/nar/gkp1218. http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/gkp1218
*2) Moreau et al. (2009) Zip nucleic acids (ZNAs): new high affinity oligonucleotides as potent primers for PCR and reverse transcription. Nucl. Acids Res., 37: e130; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp661. http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/gkp661
*3) Noir, R. et al. (2008) Oligonucleotide-oligospermine conjugates (Zip Nucleic Acids): a convenient means of finely tuning hybridization temperatures. J Am Chem Soc, 130, 13500-13505. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=20744863
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*4) Voirin, E. et al. (2007) Versatile synthesis of oligodeoxyribonucleotide-oligospermine conjugates. Nat Protoc, 2, 1360-1367. http://www.nature.com/nprot/journal/v2/n6/full/nprot.2007.177.html
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5) ZNA™-FAQs