Operator`s manual

16
LightCycler® 480 Gene Scanning Software
Gene Scanning with the LightCycler® 480 System
High Resolution Melting
This figure shows how a High Resolution Melting experiment can detect both homozy-
gous and heterozygous allelic variants in a sample. Homozygous variants are detectable
because their melting curves are displaced along the temperature axis (x-axis) relative to
homozygous “wild type” samples. Heterozygous variants have melting curves that differ
even more dramatically in shape from “wild type” curves.
In heterozygous samples, melting curve shape changes because the observed melting
curve is actually a composite of both heteroduplex and homoduplex components.
Heteroduplexes formed in the sample (i.e., between the “wild type” and variant
strands) are less stable than the homoduplexes formed, and thus, dissociate more
readily.