Inorganic lanthanides induce PCR bias towards shorter amplicons

Rare earth elements have many uses, and are frequently included in products such as fluorescent materials, hydride batteries, catalytic materials and lasers. In this study, it was observed that trivalent lanthanide ions (Ln[III] ions) appeared to inhibit the synthesis of large fragments in PCR assays, thus resulting in the preferential amplification of shorter sequences. It is therefore speculated that this Ln(III) ion-mediated bias could be utilized to improve the success rates for amplification of shorter products.