PRIMER BEADS

Non-hydrophobic beads and methods to reversibly bind, normalize, store and in situ deliver primers to reactions including PCR. Also provided are instructions for preparing the beads. In the presence of an appropriate binding buffer, a bead can be used to bind and desalt primers from a crude solution of DMT-off primers. In the presence of an appropriate binding buffer, a bead can be used to bind and purify primers from a crude solution of DMT-on primers. A bead may bind a picomolar amount of DMT-on primers from a solution containing a plurality of crude DMT-on primers. Upon detritylation and washing, the resulting DMT-off primer bound bead may be used in PCR. Primers are released from the bead upon cycling the temperature. Primer bound beads are coated or silanized with hydrophobic reagents which ensures a gradual release of primers during the thermal cycling of the PCR reaction. Coating or silanization in turn enhances primer stability and long term storage.