TaqStart Antibody provides antibody-mediated hot start that enhances the specificity and sensitivity of PCR. This antibody inhibits polymerase activity before the onset of thermal cycling, preventing nonspecific amplification and primer-dimer formation. When the reaction temperature is raised, the antibody is quickly inactivated and PCR proceeds. Dilution buffer is provided.

TaqStart Antibody is significantly more convenient to use than other hot-start methods and offers several advantages:

• Avoids sample damage due to depurination that can occur with the high-temperature incubations that are necessary to activate some hot-start enzymes (Fromenty et al. 2000; Barnes 1994; Fromenty et al. 1996; Friedberg, Walker, and Siede 1995; Lindahl and Andersson 1972; Suzuki, Ohsumi, and Makino 1994).
• Reduces the risk of cross-contamination because it is not necessary to reopen the reaction tubes after heating.
• Can be used when other hot-start methods are difficult to perform, such as for high-throughput PCR, in situ PCR, microtiter-plate formats, capillary PCR, and oil or wax-free environments.
• Provides more definitive PCR results in cases when amplification of nonspecific products is a problem, such as reactions involving low copy number targets, complex DNA background, or degenerate primers.

TaqStart Antibody is effective with any Taq-derived DNA polymerase (native, recombinant, and N-terminal deletion mutants). Our Titanium Taq DNA Polymerase and all of our Advantage HD and Advantage 2 products include TaqStart Antibody.