Clinical Chemistry, Vol 39, 1682-1685, Copyright © 1993 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Fast, manual, nonradioactive method for DNA sequencing

B Debuire, A Chabli and N Frenoy
Service de Biochimie, Hopital Paul Brousse, Villejuif, France.

We describe a protocol that allows nonradioactive detection of sequencing products after manual, direct, solid-phase sequencing of polymerase chain reaction-amplified DNA. The amplified DNA fragment to be studied is biotinylated at the 5' end of one of the two oligonucleotide primers used for amplification, allowing coupling to streptavidin-coated magnetic beads. The immobilized double-stranded DNA is then separated into single strands by alkaline treatment. A 5'- biotinylated sequencing primer is used after saturating with a biotin solution any possible remaining affinity sites on the streptavidin- coated magnetic beads. Sequencing is performed by using T7 DNA polymerase, and the sequencing products are electrophoresed in denaturing polyacrylamide sequencing gel. After transfer of the products to a nylon membrane, the sequencing pattern is revealed by chemiluminescence. Biotinylated alkaline phosphatase is bound to the 5' end of the sequencing primer via a streptavidin bridge and catalyzes the reaction by cleaving a phosphate group from a chemiluminescent substrate. The emitted photons are detected by exposing the membrane to x-ray film. This method is simple, rapid, and consistently successful and reproducible.