Advancing technologies in gene amplification

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) 1996-11, Vol.14 (11), p.413-415
• Main Author: Vrana, Kent E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automation; Biotechnology; DNA - analysis; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; RNA - analysis
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/0167-7799(96)30022-X

Shakespeare's classic line from the end of the sixteenth century is particularly appropriate when considering the current status of gene amplification technology. Presentations at a recent meeting on advances in this field indicated that there is a variety of new amplification techniques to supplement traditional PCR for the detection of rare nucleic acid sequences. Amplification technologies now include Nucleic Acid-Based Sequence Amplification (NASBA), Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA), Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA), aRNA amplification, branched DNA (bDNA) amplification, hybrid capture, Multiple Allele-Specific Diagnostic Assay (MASDA), Quantitative Expression Analysis (QEA), both competitive and noncompetitive reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR), and in situ PCR; and this list considers only the experimental paradigms. Experimental output (signal detection) also encompasses a variety of modalities from traditional super(32P) incorporation (assessed by phosphor-imaging, liquid scintillation spectrometry and autoradiography), to HPLC coupled with uv spectroscopy, to luminometry, and ultimately to real-time fluorescence monitoring of the amplification process. Details of most of the main systems and technologies were presented.