Good work Simon organising this discussion group. I am sorry I have no answers as yet. I also have a question. I have designed a species specific primer that targets mtDNA of a marine species used in a feeding trial. It works fine amplifying the target sequence, but non targets produce unusual light regular banding (much like bp ladder but finer) throughout the entirety when run on a 2.0% gel. I don't think it is a contaminant, but something else in the reaction. We have changed over reagents to determine the problem with no success. Has anyone experienced this in their PCR products? Cheers Kristian Peters SARDI Aquatic Sciences 0428993524 ________________________________ From: mti-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of simon jarman Sent: Fri 23/03/2007 11:17 AM To: mti@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mti] pseudogenes and chimaeras Hello, Thank you all for subscribing. There are now more than 30 people on the list, which is a good starting point for a discussion group. I have a question. Have any of you identified pseudogenes or chimaeric sequences when using universal-type primers to amplify animal mitochondrial genes from dietary samples? -- Dr Simon Jarman simon.jarman@xxxxxxxxx (+61)0408580923