Abstract

The study of mammalian gene expression is often carried out at the level of mRNA. In such analyses, one usually measures the amount of an mRNA of interest under different conditions such as stress, growth, development, cell and tissue localization or as part of an evaluation of the effects of gene transfection. A variety of techniques exist to measure gene expression and most commonly involve Northern hybridization analysis, ribonuclease protection or RT-PCR. Common to all of these assays is the inclusion of a so-called loading or internal control (i.e., analysis of an mRNA that does not change in relative abundance during the course of treatments). Here, we discuss the uses and pitfalls of the most popular of these controls, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and beta-actin, with special emphasis on precautions associated with the use of GAPDH.

Keywords

Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenaseGene expressionBiologyMessenger RNARibonucleaseGeneGene dosageMolecular biologyRNAComputational biologyReference genesHousekeeping geneCell biologyGenetics

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
2000
Type
review
Volume
29
Issue
2
Pages
332-337
Citations
880
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

880
OpenAlex

Cite This

Toshihide Suzuki, Paul J. Higgins, Dana R. Crawford (2000). Control Selection for RNA Quantitation. BioTechniques , 29 (2) , 332-337. https://doi.org/10.2144/00292rv02

Identifiers

DOI
10.2144/00292rv02