It is well appreciated that Mg2+ stabilizes duplex DNA 80 to 100 fold to as much as 140-fold (1). How ever Promega (2) and other online calculators of primer Tm do not take into account the effects of magnesium on helix stability. I personally ran a multiplex PCR which its annealing temperature is close to Tm calculated without magnesium effect. I used Wetmore and Sninsky (1995) N-N formula with a little change in [salt] calculation, [salt]= [K+] + [NH4].
Now my question is, do we need to consider magnesium effect for Tm calculation of primers in PCR? since doing so raises Tm about 5-10 oC?
[PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR ANSWERS WITH PUBLISHED ARTICLES IF POSSIBLE]
References
(1) Nakano S, Fujimoto M, Hara H, Sugimoto N. Nucleic acid duplex stability: influence of base composition on cation effects. Nucleic Acids Res 1999;27:2957–65.
(2) http://www.promega.com/biomath/calc11.htm#salt_Desc
(3) Wetmur, J.G., and J.J. Sninsky (1995). Nucleic acid hybridization and unconven- tional bases. In PCR Strategies (M.A. Innis, D.H. Gelfand, and J.J. Sninsky, eds.). Acade mic Press, San Diego, CA, pp. 69–83.