Phenix High Activity Taq is a thermostable DNA polymerase, which can withstand prolonged incubation at high temperatures without a significant loss of activity. Taq is purified from Thermus Aquaticus and is widely used in assays for molecular biology. Taq reaction products contain 3´ adenosine residues and are ready for TA cloning. Specificity and performance of Taq can be further improved with the use of 2x PolyMate Additive (not supplied, see associated products), which is designed for GC or AT rich DNA, "dirty" templates or sequences with difficult melting profiles.

Phenix High Activity Taq with Red Loading Dye is a formulation of our regular High Activity Taq, which contains a non-toxic and non-hazardous red dye. The red dye provides easy and quick identification of reactions to which the enzyme has been added, and facilitates the confirmation of complete mixing. When the reaction is complete, a sample of the reaction mix can be loaded directly onto the Agarose gel without the need for loading buffer, since the mix is of sufficiently high density to sink to the bottom of the gel. The red dye migrates towards the positive electrode, thereby providing a means to monitor the progress of the electrophoresis.

The presence of the dye has no effect on routine enzymatic manipulations, although rare exceptions may occur. In order to produce a reaction of sufficient density to allow for the direct loading of a sample onto a gel, we recommend using a minimum of 1.5u per 50µl reaction. The specificity and performance of High Activity Taq with Red Loading Dye can be further improved with the use of 2x PolyMate Additive (not supplied, see associated products), which is designed for GC or AT-rich DNA, "dirty" templates or sequences with difficult melting profiles.