GREENGARD.LEWIS@BIONET-20.ARPA (05/13/88)
From: Robert M. Lewis <GREENGARD.LEWIS@BIONET-20.ARPA> Would anyone care to comment on alternatives to radioisotopes for labeling nucleic acids. I am currently using the random primer method with 32P-dCTP (Feinberg and Vogelstein. 1983. Anal. Biochem. 132:6.) to label gel-purified restriction fragments of plasmid inserts. I can get high specific activity and fairly low background with these probes, but the short half-life of 32P is, of course, a major drawback. The other major problem is dealing with and disposing of isotopes. I hope to receive enough comments to do a side by side comparison of alternate methods, the results of which I will post on this board. -------