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Writer's pictureSubham

Improve: Your In vitro Transcription Rxn

Updated: Jun 12, 2021


In vitro Transcription (#IVT)is one of the complex and costly reactions in #MolecularBiology and at the same time pretty versatile and robust system to produce patient-ready #therapies. So there is often a lot of regulatory criteria to be met. Hope the listed suggestions help you meet them!

A) Inorganic #Pyrophosphatase addition: #Pyrophosphatase serves two purposes:

  • It cleaves the pyrophosphates formed, as the #transcription reaction progresses. By following #LeChateliers principle, the position of #ReactionEquilibrium then shifts to counteract the change and to reestablish the equilibrium in favor of more transcription where the production of #RNA increases.

  • Secondly Pyrophosphates in the reaction mix coordinates with #Mg2+ and precipitate out. Since #Mg2+ is a vital #cofactor for #RNApolymerase activity, its precipitation will reduce reaction efficiency, and thus #Pyrophosphatase addition comes into picture. The recommended dose is 0.002U per uL of reaction mix.

B) #Spermidine addition: Spermidine [N-(3-aminopropyl)- 1,4- butanediamine, C7H19N3] is an inexpensive polyamine additive used a large array of restriction digestion, #PCR and IVT reactions. It is used for the following reasons:

  • #Polycationic compounds like these interact better with the oppositely charged nucleic acids than Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions where charges are punctual, thereby promoting condensation and aggregation of #DNA.

  • These molecules stimulate #RNA transcription with DNA dependent #RNApolymerases from #phages.

C) #Dithiothreitol (DTT) addition: #DTT is a reducing agent used in virtually all reaction buffers to increase the life of enzymes containing free sulfhydryl groups in a reaction tube, limiting the natural #oxidation that would inactivate them.


D) #Triton X-100 addition: #Detergents like Triton X-100 and #Tween20 are added in reaction mixes to reduce adsorption to the plastic tubes.


E) #PEG-8000 addition: PEGs are usually added as #CrowdingAgents to improve the #efficiency of the reaction by increasing local concentrations of each reagent.


F) #MnCl2 addition: MnCl2 serves two causes:

  • Mn2+ ions trigger DNA double strand break activity by the #DNAse I, while with Mg2+ the #DNAseI cuts randomly only one strand of the #dsDNA.

  • It promotes incorporation of 2'-methylated ribonucleotides into the transcript.

G) #MgCl2 addition: #Magnesium is one of the most important ion in the #IVT reaction and is included by default in all types of #IVT buffers. But the trick is that its concentration should be in 1.1875-1.75: 1 ratio with the total #NTPs.


H) #RNaseInhibitor addition: Commercially available #RNaseInhibitors are known to be recombinant acidic proteins of about 50kDa with a #leucine-rich repeat. The #affinity of #RI for RNases is among the highest for any bi-molecular interactions and the dissociation constant of the RI-RNAse A complex is in the fM range under physiological conditions. This is added in #IVT reactions to protect the nascent #RNA being produced. The recommended dose is 1U per uL of reaction mix.



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Jun 29, 2022

Why magnesium chloride and not magnesium acetate?

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