title: Microfluidic gradient PCR (MG-PCR): a new method for microfluidic DNA amplification.
abstract: This study develops a new microfluidic DNA amplification strategy for executing parallel DNA amplification in the microfluidic gradient polymerase chain reaction (MG-PCR) device. The developed temperature gradient microfluidic system is generated by using an innovative fin design. The device mainly consists of modular thermally conductive copper flake which is attached onto a finned aluminum heat sink with a small fan. In our microfluidic temperature gradient prototype, a non-linear temperature gradient is produced along the gradient direction. On the copper flake of length 45 mm, width 40 mm and thickness 4 mm, the temperature gradient easily spans the range from 97 to 52 degrees Celsius. By making full use of the hot (90-97 degrees Celsius) and cold (60-70 degrees Celsius) regions on the temperature gradient device, the parallel, two-temperature MG-PCR amplification is feasible. As a demonstration, the MG-PCR from three parallel reactions of 112-bp Escherichia coli DNA fragment is performed in a continuous-flow format, in which the flow of the PCR reagent in the closed loop is induced by the buoyancy-driven nature convection. Although the prototype is not optimized, the MG-PCR amplification can be completed in less than 45 min. However, the MG-PCR thermocycler presented herein can be further scaled-down, and thus the amplification times and reagent consumption can be further reduced. In addition, the currently developed temperature gradient technology can be applied onto other continuous-flow MG-PCR systems or used for other analytical purposes such as parallel and combination measurements, and fluorescent melting curve analysis.
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, No.55, Zhongshan Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510631, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunsun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xing
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D017022:Flow Injection Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006361:Heating / Q000295:instrumentation*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000295:instrumentation*