MULTICHANNEL PCR AND SERIAL TRANSFER MACHINE AS A FUTURE TOOL IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOTECHNOLOGY

As an improved strategy for producing functional macromolecules by in vitro evolutionary optimization, we propose an automated machine that can process up to 960 samples in parallel. It consists of a 960-well P CR machine with special sealed plastic reaction vessels and appropriat e handling devices. We show that the heat-sealing technique does not s ignificantly affect the activity of Taq DNA Polymerase or that of the temperature-sensitive Q beta RNA polymerase but avoids cross-contamina tion and evaporation of the samples. Initial experiments demonstrate t he suitability of the apparatus to uniformly process the samples and t o perform the thermocycling. Serial transfer of reaction products into fresh reaction solution was used to initiate further rounds of amplif ication as a typical experimental setup for an evolutionary biotechnol ogy application.