Intracavity melting analysis of DNA methylation using laser emission

In this paper, we first analyzed the DNA methylation by using the method of laser-based melting in a Fabry-Perot (FP) microcavity. Pumped with an external intensity, four types of artificially synthesized DNA sequences with/ without cytosine methylation in each strand were first analyzed and distinguished by the melting temperatures of the laser-based high-resolution melting (HRM) curves. Meanwhile the dependance of the laser threshold on the melting temperature for each sample was investigated; the experimental result indicates that, by optimizing the pump intensity, a lower melting temperature can be obtained for each sample. On the other hand, by setting the melting temperature at an optimized value, the samples can be distinguished by the laser behaviors above the threshold; this provides a new way for DNA analysis, and cannot be realized in the fluorescence-based melting analysis. For example, the four types of DNA samples were distinguished with an obvious difference in the laser slope coefficients when the melting temperature was set at 60 degrees C. Finally, five mixes of methylated and nonmethylated DNAs with different mole percentages were analyzed by the laser slope coefficients.

Automated summary

In this paper, the authors analyzed DNA methylation using laser-based melting method and achieved the differentiation of different DNA samples by optimizing the pump intensity and setting the melting temperature at an optimized value. They also analyzed mixes of methylated and nonmethylated DNAs with different mole percentages based on laser slope coefficients.