The whole volumes of my PCR reactions (10 uL) evaporated during the cycling (honest mistake, I know why it happened and how to fix it - wrong PCR caps used). My question is, could this leave some contamination in the cycler that could affect the next PCR products? And if so, what is the best way to clean the cycler?
It won't affect your next PCR cycles provided you use the correct caps.
The fact that all of your PCR reaction has evaporated suggests poor seal of your lid or sup optimal heated lid
In this situation i would gently wipe the lid of your PCR machine with 70% IMS and then autoclaved distilled water followed by drying
But i agree with the last commentator: if your PCR tube lids are sealed properly this should not be an issue and there should be no neec to clean the lid of your PCR machine
You'll have lab contamination, and I am not sure about the magnitude. You can consider a soft but repetitive surface cleaning with a bleach solution.
An accident like this sometimes happens; it's called experience.
My feeling is that with the wrong caps the denaturation step of pcr will have evaporated the reagents in the first few cycles so there will be little contamination and washing the surfaces with soapy water or dilute bleach will be enough but putting the block under a UV light will not do any harm as well. When you have finished wipe the block with a damp tissue and squeeze out 1ul of liquid to run as a sample in your next assay. Also be sure to run no template controls in your assays and if any of these show a positive band do a serious clean up of pipettes,plasticware and surfaces in your working area.
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