poly (dI-dC) - poly (dI-dC) role? (Nov/23/2005 )

Hi everybody,

i need your help.

In fact, i would like to know the role of Poly (dI-dC) ( same thing for poly(dI)) role in general and especially in an RNA T7 amplification ?

thank you in adavance

I can only tell you why I use it in EMSAs...

it acts as a sort of non-specific competitor. some DNA-binding proteins will bind to any old bit of DNA and those need to be ruled out in EMSA, when you need to show specificity of binding by your TF to your promoter sequence of interest. so basically it sort of acts like the blocker in immunoblotting; it prevents (or at least greatly reduces) non-specific binding