I want to order some primers for the detection of mtDNA damage in both rat and human. There are some mitoPrimers™ Available in the website of your company, such as A1, B1 or C1. I want to know that do these primers work for both rat and human? Thanks! – Yun-Hui

Dear Yun Hui,

Thanks for asking about our mitoPrimers™mitoPrimers™ were designed based on the Hypervariable 1 and 2 regions of human mtDNA to prevent any cross-species amplification between species.

I compared the A1 and CA mitoPrimers™ to the Rattus norvegicus mitochondrial genome and found that the A1 mitoPrimer™ aligns with two mismatched base pairs. C1 mitoPrimer™ did not align. I would recommend you compare the primer sequences to your specific rat genome using BLAST to determine if the mitoPrimers™ are compatible.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions.

Best regards,
Sabrina Shore, MS
Senior Research Associate

How do I know which mitoPrimers™ to use for sequencing?

The A1/B1 and C1/D1 PCR products can be sequenced using primers A1/A2/A4/B1/B2/B4 and C1/C2/D1/D2/D4, respectively. As a first step, use primers A1/ B1 and C1/D1 for sequencing unless there are problems in getting a continuous sequencing read. Should this problem be encountered, more focused sequencing reads can be performed using primers A2/A4/B2/B4 and C2/D2/D4.