Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP`s) have become an invaluable tool in the field of Genetic Research. They are employed in a wide range of scientific fields from Pharmacogenetics to animal breed identification through to disease gene mapping. They are a popular choice of genetic marker due to their ease of assay and analysis, however many standard assays remain relatively expensive to use in high throughput.

In this application note we show the use of the PHERAstar multimode plate reader for measurements in both SNP Genotyping chemistry development and high throughput production genotyping. The new KASPar™ system, developed by KBiosciences, was used to assess the performance enhancements of the PHERAstar, using a new SNP genotyping specific optical module with dual emission created by BMG LABTECH. Using two photomultipliers allows for improved accuracy and reduced read times by 30%.