These HR/NHEJ kits are cell based, meaning they have the HR or NHEJ GFP reporters pre-installed. A single plasmid (I-Sce1) is transfected to activate repair. Please see this table for a summary and comparison/application of each kit.
Transfection-based HR and NHEJ kits use transient transfections to make a pool of cells containing the DNA reporters to allow the investigator to interrogate the 2 major DNA repair pathways. The advantages are:
It uses GFP readout to measure the efficiency of repair.
There is zero background when repair is blocked or inhibited
The reporters for HR or NHEJ can be installed in virtually any cell line that can be transiently transfect
It is rapid and robust
It is ideal for drug screens to find novel inhibitors of HR/NHEJ
The kits are highly specific and can only report HR or NHEJ
Readout GFP can be done by FACS or Imaging
Entire pathway can be followed by live imaging in viable cells
Ideal to track repair kinetics at the single cell level