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General

No. We do not provide primer design service for HRM.

The HRM calibration is a 3-step procedure. In some instrument software the calibration process has been streamlined to a single-step procedure (applies to the ViiA™ 7 Real-Time PCR System, QuantStudio® 6 and 7 Real-Time PCR Systems, and the QuantStudio® 12K Flex Real-Time PCR System).

For the HRM calibration, the first step is a PCR reaction to generate the HRM dye plate. The reaction plate contains a DNA template, a primer pair, and the PCR mix with HRM dye. The second step is dye calibration using the PCR plate from step 1. The last step is a melt curve run, again using the same plate. For details, please refer to the HRM guides for each instrument: 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System (with software version 1.4 or 2.0.4 and below), 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System (with software version 2.0.5 and above), 7900HT Real-Time PCR System, StepOne™ and StepOnePlus™ Real-Time PCR Systems, ViiA™ 7 Real-Time PCR System, QuantStudio® 6 and 7 Real-Time PCR Systems, and QuantStudio® 12K Flex Real-Time PCR System.

You can order a synthetic positive control plasmid using our GeneArt® Gene Synthesis services. The final product is sequence verified and provided as 5 µg of lyophilized plasmid. Alternatively, you may be able to find a positive control sample from Coriell.

Software Data Analysis

For the 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System, if the software version is below v2.0.4, the compatible HRM Software is v2.0.1. If the 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System has been upgraded to software version 2.0.4 or above, then you will need to get HRM Software version 3.0.1.

There are a few possibilities. First, make sure the HRM Software version is v2.0.1, and the 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System software version is v2.3 or above. Second, check that the run method used was as recommended in the HRM protocol; make sure the ramp rate for the dissociation stage is 1%. Then try to open the calibration file from the HRM Software; if it does not open, the calibration file is defective. The defects could be due to a bad calibration plate or instrument uniformity issue.

Check that there are not outliers on the plate. You cannot omit any wells on the HRM calibration plate.