Selecting optimal oligonucleotide primers for multiplex PCR.
We investigate the problem of designing efficient multiplex PCR for medical applications. We show that the problem is NP-complete by transformation to the Multiple Choice Matching problem and give an efficient approximation algorithm. We developed this algorithm in a computer program that predicts which genomic regions may be simultaneously amplified by PCR. Practical use of the software shows that the method can treat 250 non-polymorphic loci with less than 5 simultaneous experiments.
Nicodème
P
P
INRIA-Rocquencourt, Le Chesnay, France. Pierre.Nicodeme@inria.fr
Steyaert
J M
JM
D000465:Algorithms; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012984:Software
D017931:DNA Primers