FAQ: What is Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA)?

Strand displacement amplification is an isothermal in vitro DNA amplification method that relies on a nicking enzyme to nick one strand of double-stranded DNA and a DNA polymerase with exonuclease deficiency to extend the 3´-end at the nick and displace the downstream DNA strand (GT Walker, 1992). This method can be applied to rapidly detect a target nucleic acid with high sensitivity in a point-of-care setting and has become a popular molecular diagnosis method. We show a typical SDA reaction with WarmStart Nt.BstNBI (NEB #R0725) and Bst 2.0 WarmStart DNA polymerase (NEB #M0538) to detect hBRCA1 target in HeLa genomic DNA in WarmStart Nt.BstNBI. To learn more and to view our strand displacement amplification and nicking enzyme amplification reaction product offerings, please visit here.