Confusing bands from PCR - not primer dimer, not product (Nov/06/2009 )

Hi tomato,

This seems off-the-wall, but one of the research assistants in our plant science department asked how old your primers were. She had a few sets that would stop working after a month or two--even if she used them only once and left them frozen for a month before the second use--so she began aliquotting them and pulling out only what she needed. She had no explanation for the dropoff in efficacy; she just figured they were less stable than her other sets.

regards,

lab rat