Every Bandit Biosystems multiplex panel page includes a tube and dye layout. It is the quickest way to see how a panel is built and how to set up a run.
Tubes and channels
- A tube is one reaction. Each primer and probe mix runs as its own reaction, in its own well.
- A dye is one channel. Each target in a tube carries a probe labeled with a different fluorophore, such as FAM, HEX, Cy5 or ROX, so the instrument can read them separately.
- One target per channel per tube. A four-dye tube detects up to four targets at once. A panel with more targets uses more tubes.
A worked example
The Canine Enteric Pathogen qPCR Panel detects 13 targets in four tubes:
| Tube | FAM | HEX | Cy5 | ROX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tube 1 | C. difficile toxin A/B | C. perfringens CPE | C. perfringens CPA | C. perfringens NetE/NetF |
| Tube 2 | SPRY1 control | Canine circovirus | Canine distemper virus | Canine enteric coronavirus |
| Tube 3 | SPRY1 control | Salmonella spp. | Cryptosporidium spp. | Campylobacter (jejuni and coli) |
| Tube 4 | SPRY1 control | Giardia spp. | Canine parvovirus | Lawsonia intracellularis |
Read each row as one well. In tube 2, for example, a signal in HEX means canine circovirus, and a signal in FAM means the internal control amplified.
Things to notice
- Internal controls take a channel. The SPRY1 control appears in three of the four tubes, so those tubes carry three targets each. That is why target counts on our pages exclude internal controls.
- Some channels report a group. An entry such as "C. difficile toxin A/B" or "Salmonella spp." reports more than one gene or species in a single channel. The product page lists exactly what each channel covers.
- Dye substitutions. HEX can be read as VIC or JOE on instruments without a HEX channel.
When planning a run, multiply the tube count by the number of samples and controls to get the number of wells you need. For a custom layout, try our panel designer.