Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS)

A standard ARMS PCR consists of two complementary reactions (two tubes) and utilizes 3 primers. One primer is constant and complementary to the template in both reactions, the other primers differ at their 3' terminal residues and are specific to either the wild type DNA sequence or the mutated sequence at a given base - only one of these primers is used per tube. PCR products are separated by electrophoresis through an agarose gel containing ethidium bromide. If the sample is homozygous mutant or homozygous wild type amplification will only occur in only one of the tubes, if the sample is heterozygous amplification will be seen in both tubes.

View an animation of the Amplification Refractory Mutation System.

Advantages
Rapid, reliable and non-isotopic.

Disadvantages
Current format does not distinguish between homozygotes and heterozygotes, except for the F508del mutation.

Example of a commercial kit
ELUCIGENE CF29v2, CF30, CF7, CF4, CF-MEP, CF-HTv3, CF-EU1, CF-PolyT (Gen-Probe Life Sciences) = multiplex ARMS (4 tubes, number of ARMS primers in a single reaction).

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