TaqMan Low-density Arrays (TLDAs)

The TaqMan low-density array (Figure) is a 384-well microfluidic card manufactured by Applied Biosystems where up to 384 simultaneous real-time PCR reactions are possible without the need for liquidhandling robots or multi-channel pipettors to load samples. Each card allows for 1–8 samples to be run in parallel against 12–384 TaqMan gene expression assay targets that are preloaded into each of the 1–2 mL wells on the card. The TaqMan low-density array is customisable for human, mouse and rat genes, but human infectious agent target genes are not yet available. The TaqMan low-density array is designed for use on the Applied Biosystems 7900HT fast real-time PCR system. The TLDA format increases by one order of magnitude the number of different realtime PCR assays that are feasible in a given time and is suitable for the validation of DNA microarray gene expression results.

Figure : (A) The TaqMan low-density array (TLDA). (B) About 100 mL of master mix and hexamer primed cDNA are loaded into each well and distributed into the reaction wells by low-speed centrifugation and the card is se aled and thermocycled for about 40 cycles. Illuatration provided by courtesy ofApplied Biosystems.