Rainbow Probes

Rainbow probes are an invention belonging to Pxlence. These probes are an alternative to TaqMan hydrolysis probes. However, they are typically used at much lower concentrations and, instead of recognizing a target sequence flanked by primers (as TaqMan probes do), they bind to one of the modified primers. This means that one of the sequence-specific primers is pre-labeled with a Rainbow probe recognition sequence.

The three main advantages of using Rainbow probes are:

  • Lower final concentrations of Rainbow probes per reaction reduce costs.
  • Rainbow probes recognize a synthetic recognition sequence included in one of the primers, eliminating the need for probe-specific reaction optimization.
  • Since only a specific primer pair is required, much shorter amplicons (e.g., <50 bp) can be detected, potentially improving efficiency and sensitivity.

However, their performance in detecting mutations and short sequence edits remains unclear. For more information, refer to Pxlence and their Rainbow probe brochure.

rainbowProbes.png
Rainbow probe mediated amplicon detection. Based on the Rainbow probe brochure