Biotin-16-dCTP

Biotin-16-dCTP is a modified deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP), serving as a convenient tool for the enzymatic introduction of the biotin moiety into a nucleic acid target of interest. The biotin moiety exhibits a very strong affinity for streptavidin. The strength and specificity of this interaction has been exploited in a variety of biological applications, such as secondary label introduction and affinity isolation. For the biotinylated nucleotides, biotin-16-dCTP and biotin-16-dUTP, strong amplicon formation can be observed with modified nucleotides substituted for 75% of their natural counterparts (i.e. dCTP and dUTP). Compared with biotin-16-dUTP whose yield decreases quickly above 75% substitution, the yield of biotin-16-dCTP decreases at a much higher substitution of ∼90%. It turns out that Taq DNA polymerase can incorporate biotin-16-dCTP with greater efficiency than biotin-16-dUTP. Reference: 1. Natasha P, Joyclyn Y. PCR incorporation of modified dNTPs: the substrate properties of biotinylated dNTPs. BioTechniques, 2010, 48(4): 333 - 334.