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Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 24 (2): 193 – 201 (2013)
Short Communication
Comparative Study on Restriction Analysis and Primer Designing
Programme
T.J. Koswatte, V.A. Sumanasinghe
1*
and P. Samaraweera
2
Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture
University of Peradeniya
Sri Lanka
ABSTRACT. Many programmes are available in the internet to analyze restriction sites
and design primers. The results of comparative evaluations of commonly deployed, freely
available software for these using nucleotide sequences from the NCBI database are
presented. Seven restriction analysis tools were compared for specificity, ability to detect the
restriction site, graphical display of output, clarity, and user flexibility while the NEB cutter
provides the highest user flexibility and the most clear graphical output. Just Bio-Cutter
provides more details about the restriction enzymes than other tools. “Restriction Enzyme
Digest of DNA” has the uniqueness of multiple sequence digestion. Seven primer designing
programmes were evaluated for comprehensiveness, interactive design, user-friendliness,
and the efficiency of designing primers. The Primer3 has higher capabilities and flexibility
and, Primer Quest has comprehensiveness and better interactive designs. The Batchprimer3
has the unique ability to design primers for multiple sequences simultaneously.
Keywords: Bioinformatics, primer designing, restriction analysis, software
INTRODUCTION
Restriction analysis helps to identify restriction enzyme cleavage sites on a DNA sequence
and is an important bioinformatics tool in genome mapping, gene cloning, and probe
designing. In addition, restriction analysis is widely used in DNA finger printing techniques
such as RFLP and AFLP and in software development related to molecular diagnosis. Type
II Restriction endonucleases recognize a specific short DNA sequence and bind and cleave
the DNA within the site of recognition (Cleaver, 2006). Most restriction sites are 4 to 6 base
palindromes.
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is one of the most popular, time saving and sensitive
method for amplified synthesis of DNA sequences in biological and biomedical research
today. However, there are several obstacles hindering the best performance of a PCR. False
amplification of DNA is a serious problem in PCR. The most common causes of the artifact
are the self-dimerization and unspecific annealing of primers. Optimal primer sequence and
appropriate primer concentration are essential for maximal specificity and efficiency of PCR.
1
Department of Agricultural Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
2
Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka
∗
Corresponding author: sajanas@pdn.ac.lk
Koswatte et al.
194
Several parameters such as the length of the primer, percentage GC content and the 3'
sequence need to be optimized for successful PCR (Abd-Elsalam, 2003). If primers are too
short they might hybridize to non-target sites giving undesired amplification products. If
primers are too long, it reduces the efficiency of PCR. In practice, primers longer than 30
bases are rarely used (Brown, 2001). The ideal annealing temperature must be low enough to
enable hybridization between primer and template but high enough to prevent mismatched
hybrids from forming. This depends on the melting temperature (Tm), the point at which the
paired primer-template hybrid precisely dissociates.
The GC percentage provides information about the strength of annealing. A 45%-60% GC
content is recommended to avoid internal secondary structures and long stretches of any one
base (Dieffenbach et al., 1993). For primers with a GC content of less than 50%, it is
necessary to extend the primer sequence beyond 18 bases to keep the melting temperature
above the recommended lower limit of 50°C. The 3' terminal position in PCR primers is
essential for the control of mis-priming (Kwok et al., 1990). Software provides “Max 3”
complementarities which bring the maximum stability for the last five bases at the 3' end.
Default values are used in general primer selection. However, depending on the experimental
conditions parameters have to be manipulated. The user flexibility and optimization are the
most important factors.
A number of web-based free bioinformatics tools and commercial software are available for
restriction analysis and PCR primer design. The objective of this study is to compare the
freely available and easily accessible software for these two analyses.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
All programs were run on a computer with Intel dual core 2.0 GHz processor and 1GB
RAM. The operating system was Windows XP.
Analysis of Restriction Site Detection Software
A 200 long nucleotide sequence (gi|153090190:301-500) randomly selected from the NCBI
database was used for analysis (Fig. 1). The cleavage sites were identified using seven freely
available restriction analysis tools: namely WatCut, Sequence extractor, JustBio-Cutter, NEB
cutter, TAIR, RestrictionMapper and Restriction Enzyme Digest of DNA. The URLs and the
features of these programs are listed in Table 1. The evaluation was carried out by comparing
differences among recognized cleavage sites and specificity of each program.
Fig 1. The sequence used from NCBI for the identification of restriction sites
Restriction Analysis and Primer Designing Programme
195
Table 1. Restriction Analysis programmes
Tool URLs Specificities
WatCut http://watcut.uwaterlo
o.ca/watcut/watcut/te
mplate.php
Analyzes DNA sequences up to 50kbp in length
Optimizes the display of results in a graphical format, as a plain table, or in
a complete textual format along with the DNA sequence and its translated
sequence
Sequence
Extractor
http://www.bioinform
atics.org/seqext/
Generates a restriction map and PCR primer map of a DNA sequence
Gives translated sequence for submitted nucleic acid sequence.
Manipulates six frame translation
JustBio-
Cutter
http://www.justbio.co
m/index.php?page=cu
tter
Two alternating selections for restriction enzymes: all enzymes or only
enzymes with recognition sites equal or greater than 6 bp
Gives a full description about each enzyme and the commercial availability
followed by REBASE
NEB cutter http://tools.neb.com/N
EBcutter2/index.php
The maximum sequence length is 300kbp
Provides different type of outputs including restriction maps (Figure 3),
theoretical digests and links to the restriction enzyme database REBASE,
and gel view after digestion (Figure 4)
Gives changeable digestion parameters
TAIR http://www.arabidopsi
s. org/index.jsp
Provides flexibility in selecting enzymes whether it is cut by all enzymes,
3’overhang/ 5’overhang, blunt end, cut once or twice.
Does not give full details about enzyme, restriction recognition site and the
results fragment size.
Gives cutting positions in graphical format
Restric-
tion
Mapper
http://www.restriction
mapper.org/
Output is expressed only as a table summary and does not provide pictorial
output
Provides information about sequence recognition position, cutting position,
size of fragments, overhang, and the frequency of cutting
Restric-tion
Enzyme
Digest of
DNA
http://www.biophp.or
g/minitools/restriction
_diges/demo.php
Provides user flexibility in selecting restriction enzymes
Provides the facility of submitting more than one sequence for digestion
and all results are given in separate columns(Figure 5)
Analysis of Primer Designing Software
In order to evaluate the primer designing programs, a 1000 base long nucleotide sequence
(gi|153090190 |ref|NM_001099747.1:1-1000) was randomly selected from the NCBI
database. This sequence was submitted to seven different free, primer-designing tools
without changing their default parameters. Table 2 shows these seven primer-designing
software programs, URLs and their specificities. The initial comparison was based on
comprehensiveness (the degree of manipulation), interactive design, and user-friendliness of
servers. Then, the best software programs were selected and their ability to narrow down the
primer binding sequences towards target regions was evaluated. Five trials were performed
in this second stage by changing the target sequence, included region and excluded regions.
Other parameters were kept constant in all five trials. The number of primers, product size,
primer length, primer Tm
,
and percentage of GC were the constant parameters. The range of
primer size was from 18 to 27 bp and the optimum was 20 bp. The annealing temperature
was 57°C to 63°C with the optimum of 60°C. Percentage of GC was 30% to 80% and the
optimum was 50%. All trials were preformed to obtain five primer pairs and product size
ranged from 300 to 400 bp.
Koswatte et al.
196
Table 2. Primer designing software programs and their URLs
Tool URLs Specificities
Primer3 http://frodo.wi.mit.edu/p
rimer3/
Higher user flexibility for optimizing primer
parameters
PDA http://dbb.nhri.org.tw/pri
mer/index.html.
Advanced parameter settings including dimer
check, hairpin check, 5-GC content check, and
3-GC content check.
Primer-
BLAST,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih
.gov/tools/primer-blast
Combines primer design (using Primer3) and a
specificity check via a BLAST search
Designs primers that can amplify only a
particular splice variant of a gene
PrimerQuest http://eu.idtdna.com/Scit
ools/Applications/Prime
rquest/
Gives various kind of information clearly
provides facility to purchase the primers
Genefisher http://bibiserv.techfak.u
nibielefeld.de/genefisher
2/
Does not provide flexibility to enter ‘excluding
and including regions’ for primer designing
Batchprimer
3
http://probes.pw.usda.go
v/cgibin/batchprimer3/b
atchprimer3.cgi
Provides multiple sequence submission and
gives primer for each sequence separately at
once.
PRIDE http://pride.molgen.mpg.
de/pride.html
Facilitates designing primers and compares it
with vector sequences.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Restriction Site Identification
A total of 135 restriction enzymes were identified by all software programmes to the
corresponding query sequence. Fig. 2 show the comparison of percentage of ability to
identify the restriction enzymes by different programmes. The program Restriction Enzyme
Digest of DNA exhibits the highest capability in identifying the relevant restriction enzyme
for the target site ( >70%) while more commonly used NEB Cutter registered only 40%
level of capability.
Fig. 2. Percentages of ability to identify the restriction enzymes
Restriction Analysis and Primer Designing Programme
197
The study revealed that there are variations in the ability to recognize the restriction site, and
in the pictorial expression of each computational restriction analysis tool. NEB cutter
provides the highest user flexibility and clear pictorial expression (Fig. 3 and 4). JustBio-
Cutter provides more comprehensive details about restriction enzymes than other tools. The
program Restriction Enzyme Digest of DNA provides the multiple sequence digestion at the
same time (Fig. 5). It has the highest (72%) ability to find the cleavage sites as well. NEB
cutter and JustBio-Cutter have moderate ability (40%) of identification. Sequence Extractor
and RestrictionMapper exhibited a low percentage of identification. For instance, JustBio-
Cutter (at 21, 61,191bp), NEB cutter (21,161,191), and TAIR (22,162,192) could predict
BbvI restriction sites in template sequence but the other four software were not equipped for
it.
The default setting of the restriction analysis programmes often identifies cleavage sites for
all commercial enzymes that are present in query sequence. Although they have the same
default guidelines, the results differ from one another. For an example, Watcut and
RestrictionMapper have the same default settings but the ability of identification of cleavage
sites differs. Consequently, it is important that the user should have great knowledge about
the specificity of each program for identifying the best restriction analysis tool that suits the
need.
Fig 3. Graphical expression of
NEB cutter programme
Fig 4. Theoretical gel view of NEB cutter
Programme
Koswatte et al.
198
Fig. 5. Output of Restriction Enzyme Digest of DNA
Primer Designing
Based on the capability of narrowing towards the target region, the interactive designing, and
the rapid accessibility of programs, the Primer3 and PrimerQuest were identified as the best
primer designing software. PDA, Primer-BLAST, Genefisher and BatchPrimer3 tools do not
provide the option to manipulate the excluding or including region on the template
sequences. Manipulating the excluding and including region is important to design primers
closer to the target region and it helps reduce unnecessary product formation in the PCR
reaction. Therefore, PDA, Primer-BLAST, PRIDE, Genefisher and BatchPrimer3 showed
less comprehensiveness in specifying the target region of the template sequence than Primer3
and PrimerQuest. Therefore, based on both comprehensiveness and user-friendliness shown
by each program, it could be revealed that Primer3 and PrimerQuest are the best primer
designing software. Therefore, further analyses with these two software programs were
carried out. In this next stage, primer-designing parameters were equalized in Primer3 and
PrimerQuest.
Five trials were conducted by changing the target, and the included and excluded regions.
Other parameters such as number of primers, product size, primer length, primer Tm
,
and
percentage of GC were kept constant in all five trials. Table 3 shows parameters deployed
and the resulted primer sequence for each trial. According to the first trial, Primer3 and
PrimerQuest have designed primers corresponding to template region of 518 to 899 bases. In
addition, Primer3 identified two starting positions at 518 and 544 bp to design forward
primers but the PrimerQuest identified only one position at 544 bp.
Restriction Analysis and Primer Designing Programme
199
Table 3. Resulted primer pairs of Trial No: 1 to Trail No: 5
Trial 1
Database
Primer
Product
Start
Forward Primer
Tm
Start
Reverse Primer
Tm
Targets Does not submit a target region
Excluded Regions 1-300
Included Region 500-400
PrimerQ
uest
1
30
1
54
4
ACACCCTCAGATGCTG
GAAACA
58.
4
84
4
GCTTGTGTGACGAAGCT
CCATT
57.
7
2
35
5
54
4
ACACCCTCAGATGCTG
GAAACA
58.
4
89
8
TGCACAGCATGGACAG
AAGGT
58.
9
Primer3
1
32
9
51
8
GCAGCCAGTCAGTGTC
TCCT
60.
6
84
6
AGGCTTGTGTGACGAA
GCTC
60.
6
2
30
3
54
4
ACACCCTCAGATGCTG
GAAA
60.
7
84
6
AGGCTTGTGTGACGAA
GCTC
60.
6
Trial 2
Targets 346-238
Excluded Regions 1-300 &750-200
Included Region 300-370
PrimerQ
uest
1
35
0
30
9
TCACAGCTCTGGCTTG
CAGAAT
58.
8
65
8
AAGCGTGTCACCGTCGT
GGAAA
61.
2
2
34
5
30
9
TCACAGCTCTGGCTTG
CAGAAT
58.
8
65
3
TGTCACCGTCGTGGAAA
GCAC
59.
8
Primer3
1
34
2
31
3
AGCTCTGGCTTGCAGA
ATTT
59.
2
65
4
GTGTCACCGTCGTGGAA
AG
60.
15
2
33
0
32
5
CAGAATTTTCCACCCC
AAAAT 60
65
4
GTGTCACCGTCGTGGAA
AG
60.
15
Trial 3
Targets 90-200
Excluded Regions 650-300
Included Region 1-550
PrimerQ
uest
1
36
5 18
TTCGGTTACTGAGTTG
CTGCCT
58.
5
38
2
TTCCAGGTCACCTTGGT
TCTGT
58.
1
2
38
6 19
TCGGTTACTGAGTTGC
TGCCTT
58.
5
40
4
TGGCCGTTGTGGACATC
TGGTATT
60.
4
Primer3
1
37
8 1
GGTCCCTTTGCCTTTT
GTTC
60.
8
37
8
AGGTCACCTTGGTTCTG
TGG 60
2
35
6 23
TTACTGAGTTGCTGCC
TTGG
59.
1
37
8
AGGTCACCTTGGTTCTG
TGG 60
With respect to reversed primer pairs, both software identified two positions. In trial 2
PrimerQuest selected the same position (309) to design forward primers whereas Primer3
identified the same positions (654) to design reversed primers. In trials 3 and 4 also, the same
pattern of identification was observed (Results not shown). In trial number5, both
programmes could design primers including the same region (from 622 to 995 bp) with five
base pair variation.
In all the trials, Primer3 and PrimerQuest did not predict identical primers for the same
sequence. However, in the trial 4 and 5, both programs identified the same primer-starting
positions with one to seven base pair variation. In trial 1, 2, and 3, Primer3 identified various
starting positions compared to the PrimerQuest. Thus, it can be stated that Primer3 has
higher capability of designing various primers corresponding to target region. The resulted
primers had the same starting position with a possibility of changing the primer length and
Tm. As a result, selection of the best primer pair that corresponds to the target region has
limited probability. PrimerQuest was the most user-friendly among the seven software
programmes, and it gave primer sequence expression with respect to query sequences in all
Koswatte et al.
200
resulted primer pairs. Furthermore, it provided quick link to BLAST check on the primer
pairs other than the input template. Primer3 had only one output sequence expression for the
first primer or for the best primer only. However, it did not facilitate linking with BLAST to
check untargeted annealing of primer sequences.
CONCLUSIONS
In restriction analysis, amongst the 7 software compared, the NEB cutter provides higher
user flexibility to manipulate digestion parameters and it is the only package that gives
simulated agarose gel profile predictions at 0.7, 1.0, 1.4, 2.0 and 3.0 concentrations after the
digestion. “Restriction Enzyme Digest of DNA”, having the facility to digest multiple query
sequences, is useful when comparing two or more sequence simultaneously. JustBio-Cutter
is useful more in procurement as it provides more detailed description than other tools about
enzymes such as supplier’s information, commercial availability, and variations of
isozymers.
With respect to primer-designing tools, Primer3 and PrimerQuest are the best for optimizing
parameters according to comprehensiveness, interactive design, and user-friendliness.
Primer3 has higher capacity to design primers closest to a given target sequence minimizing
regions of unwanted annealing. PrimerQuest exhibited higher user-flexibility and interactive
designing ability. BatchPrimer3 is a multi-purpose package and is versatile with its ability to
design primers for RAPDs, SSR, SNPs and DNA sequencing.
REFERENCES
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