Have you ever needed to choose which restriction enzyme buffer to use for a double enzyme digest? Wished for an easy way to convert micrograms of DNA to picomoles of ends? The easily accessible Promega BioMath Tools and Restriction Enzyme Resource can help. These web-based Technical Resources can assist with everyday molecular biology calculations such as determining the melting temperature of a primer or the coding capacity of your DNA based on insert size. Each tool is based on the commonly used equation for each operation and enables you to think about your research without having to recall the mathematics.

BioMath Calculators

To find the various BioMath Calculators, go to www.promega.com/biomath/. This page features hyperlinks for various tools under the general categories of DNA Conversions, Protein Conversions and Calculators & Additional Conversions, the latter including temperature conversions and molarity calculations. After selecting the link of your choice, a new window will open, ready to be used for calculations. Each window lists the conditions and equations used for the calculations. You may want to bookmark the web page featuring the list of calculators for easy access.

These tools even have access to Promega products. For example, the Tm (Melting Temperature) Calculations for Oligos tool has a dropdown menu, allowing you to determine the T_m of a specific Promega primer without having to type the oligo sequence manually.

The Restriction Enzyme Resource

The Restriction Enzyme Resource contains some helpful tools called “Restriction Enzyme Searches”. These interactive tools allow searches by enzyme name, recognition sequence, enzymes generating compatible ends and compatible buffers.

Two of the most useful search tools incorporate dropdown menus that allow you to choose the restriction enzyme(s) of interest. Searching by “Enzyme Name” and selecting the enzyme of interest will list the recognition and cut site, overhangs and any isoschizomer(s) or neoschizomer(s) for that enzyme. If you need to decide which Promega restriction enzyme reaction buffer would give the best activity for your double digest, use the “Compatible Buffers” search. Select the two enzymes using the dropdown menu, and click “Submit” to learn if there are any Promega reaction buffers that are acceptable or recommended for those two restriction enzymes. You may discover that two sequential digests are the best option for your enzyme pair.

Additional Tools

Bookmark the “Restriction Enzyme Resource” page, and explore this page for more information on restriction enzyme digestion conditions and general information. This article features the BioMath Calculators and Restriction Enzyme Searches resources, but the “Tools” web page has other tools more specific to Promega product areas (www.promega.com/techserv/tools/). In addition, our Citations database lists peer-reviewed articles in which scientists describe the use of Promega products in their research (www.promega.com/citations/). Articles can be found using key words, product name or catalog number. The Citations database is continually updated with recent articles for established and new Promega products.

Whether you are looking for Promega product-specific information or general use tools for molecular biology calculations, the Promega BioMath Tools and Restriction Enzyme Resource are available online any time of day to assist you in moving your research forward.