Essential role of polymerases for assay performance – Impact of polymerase replacement in a well-established assay

The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is one of the most commonly molecular methods used today. It is central to numerous assays that have since been developed and described around its optimization. The Listeria monocytogenes prfA qPCR assay has been studied in great detail and due to its comprehensive knowledge, excellent performance (sensitivity of one single copy), and internal amplification control, it represents a suitable test platform for qPCR examinations. In this study, we compared ten different polymerases (or ready-to-use mastermixes) as possible (economic) alternatives to our gold standard Platinum Taq polymerase. We sought to determine the reproducibility of these assays under modified conditions, which are realistic because published assays are frequently used with substituted polymerases. Surprisingly, there was no amplification at all with some of the tested polymerases, even although the internal amplification control worked well. Since adaptation of the thermal profile and of MgCl₂ concentration could restore amplification, simple replacement of the polymerase can destroy a well-established assay leading up to >10⁶-fold less analytical sensitivity. Further, validation using Poisson and PCR-Stop analyses revealed limits to some assay-polymerase combinations and emphasize the importance of validation.