Now it is possible to let QuantPrime avoid known (i.e. reported in dbSNP) SNPs in primer sequences. The benefit is that the primer pairs will be more genotype-independent, so that quantification assays including different genotypes (cell lines or individuals) will be more reliable.

Currently, only the RefSeq annotations are marked with SNP positions in the QuantPrime database. If you have suggestions on good SNP databases for your species, please contact us!

This feature is from today (May 14th 2009) activated in the standard design protocols. It can be switched off by using a custom primer design parameter set - on the "Create new project" page, select "Custom" as quantification protocol and create your own primer pair design and specificity testing parameters.

The SNPs are marked with bold red in the transcript sequences. From today, UTRs (untranslated regions) are marked with italic grey - where UTR annotation is available.