Immobilization of nucleic acids using biotin-strept(avidin) systems

There are several advantages for using biotin-streptavidin/avidin (strept(avidin)) systems to immobilize nucleic acids and other molecules. These include the essential irreversible, but not covalent, binding of biotin to strept(avidin), the ease of biotinylating a large number of molecules without interfering with their function or the binding of biotin by strept(avidin), and the stability of strept(avidin) especially when bound with biotin. Another advantage of the biotin-strept(avidin) system is that it can be used for rapid prototyping to test a large number of protocols and molecules. The basic characteristics of the biotin-strept(avidin) are unique, although many of the approaches for immobilizing reagents with such systems are not unique. Here, biotin/strept(avidin) immobilizations systems are reviewed with an emphasis on nucleic acid applications.