Eliminating primers from completed polymerase chain reactions with exonuclease VII

Single-stranded oligonucleotide primers can be efficiently removed after PCR using E.coli exonuclease VII. Even only a few molecules of double stranded PCR product are unaffected by a treatment which eliminates 20 picomoles of primer in the presence of 500 ng of denatured genomic DNA. Exonuclease VII treatment is rapid and could simplify complicated multistep PCR protocols.