New: Nuclease Detection – As simple as this!

Nucleases (e.g. DNases & RNases) are enzymes facilitating the cleavage of phosphodiester bonds in nucleic acids (RNA, ss- or ds-DNA). Due to their omnipresence in the environment, they are a constant contamination risk especially to molecular biological applications such as PCR reactions.

Jena Bioscience offers a straightforward assay to detect lowest amounts of RNase A (<0.2 pg/µl) and/or DNase I (<1×10^-5 units/µl), see Fig. 1 below.

The master mixes are ready-to-use and come along with an easy to handle protocol for rapid simultaneous (multiplex) analysis based on labeled RNA- and DNA-probes as reporter dyes. The kits allow detection in real-time PCR thermal cyclers or common fluorescence readers.

Fig. 1: A) Kinetic evaluation of DNase I activity monitored on the real-time PC system QuantStudio 5 (ThermoFisher). Concentration of DNase I standards are 1 X 10^-5 units/µl and 5 X 10^-5 units/µl. PCR-grade water is used for negative control. B) Kinetic evaluation of RNase A activity monitored on the real-time PCR system QuantStudio 5 (ThermoFisher). Concentration of RNase A standards are 0.2 pg/µl and 1.0 pg/pl. PCR-grade water is used for negative control.

Contamination detection kits are available both for combined identification of RNase+DNase as well as of DNase by itself.