"In-house" production of DNA size marker from a vaccinal Bacillus anthracis strain.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: DNA molecular weight marker is widely used in molecular biology experiments incurring considerable costs on low-budget settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here a PCR-supported procedure is described that uses 10 primer pairs targeting chromosomal DNA from the harmless vaccinal Bacillus anthracis Sterne 34F2 strain as template. A single PCR protocol is used to reproduce all the 10 fragments of a 100 bp DNA size marker. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The unpurified amalgam of 10 PCR products can be directly loaded to agarose gels. This work was intended to develop a reasonably cost-effective DNA ladder that is useful for researchers in laboratories with limited funding.