Labeling of double-stranded DNA by ROX-dideoxycytosine triphosphate using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and separation by capillary electrophoresis.

Terminal transferase is used to add a single fluorescently labeled dideoxynucleotide to double-stranded DNA prepared by restriction endonuclease action on a bacteriophage. The product is separated by capillary electrophoresis with both hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and non-cross-linked polyacrylamide. The reaction products generate single peaks for each fragment with hydroxypropylmethylcellulose. However, the higher resolution separation produced by non-cross-linked polyacrylamide shows that the product contains two components for each restriction digest fragment. This labeling technique should be useful in restriction fragment length polymorphism studies.