Stem-loop oligonucleotides: a robust tool for molecular biology and biotechnology

Electrochemical DNA sensors

“…Because the instrumentation required is sophisticated and expensive, gene-chip technology is best suited for laboratory applications. Cases in which large numbers of genes or sequences need to be simultaneously sampled, as in transcriptional profiling or SNP discovery, are well suited to gene-chip analysis [7][8][9][10] . Clinical diagnostics do not generally require this massive data accumulation.…”

Fluorescence labeling of DNA based on photochemical ligation

“…Being dependent on the local environment fluorescence has proved an indispensable tool for the study of molecular interactions and several cellular functions. Fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide probes are nowadays in much regular use for nucleic acid sequencing [1], sequencing by hybridization (SBH) [2], fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) [3], fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) [4], molecular beacons [5,6], taqman probes [7]. This has made fluorescent probes an important tool for clinical diagnostics and made possible real-time monitoring of oligonucleotide hybridization.…”

Molecular Beacons and Other Hairpin Probes

“…They were used for detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms, in quantitative PCR, in isothermal amplification, as DNA microarray-immobilized probes and biosensors, and as antisense probes for detecting RNAs in vivo (for reviews, see Refs. [6,7]). Recent developments were directed toward simplification of the MB approach and creation of the ''label-free'' optical biomolecular sensors.…”

“…Several variants of PS approach were used in subtractive hybridization, cDNA and genomic differential displays, and in multiplex PCR (see Ref. [6] for a review). Hairpin structures were also used for elimination of PCR errors from amplified DNA.…”