T4 Polynucleotide Kinase Technical Bulletin

Literature # TB519

T4 Polynucleotide Kinase (T4 PNK) catalyzes the transfer of the γ-phosphate from ATP to the 5´-terminus of polynucleotides or to mononucleotides bearing a 3´-phosphate group. T4 PNK is widely used to end-label short oligonucleotide probes, DNA and RNA molecules. Under certain conditions, the reaction with polynucleotides can be made reversible, permitting exchange of the γ-phosphate of ATP with the 5´ terminal phosphate of a polynucleotide, thus circumventing the need to dephosphorylate the substrate with alkaline phosphatase.