In: Biology
Please list and explain minimum 3 techniques used for gene expression analysis on mRNA level?
The expression of any gene is measured by analyzing the mRNA level. A gene that is expressing at a high level will have more mRNA. There are a number of techniques for mRNA analysis.
1. Microarray analysis. It is used to check the expression of genes. In this technique, the DNA molecule acts as a probe and binds to the complementary sequence to detect gene expression. These gens are the transcriptome or mRNA transcripts expressed by a group of genes.
2. Reverse transcription. In this, the mRNA is first reverse transcribed into the cDNA and then later amplified and again transcribed into the mRNA. The amount of mRNA formed can be used to detect the expression of mRNA and gene formed by it.
3. western blotting. This is a technique used to detect the expression of the protein. mRNA is translated into the protein. So the gene which needs to be analyzed is first translated into protein and the protein expression is measured.
All these techniques are very reliable but the RT PCR is the most sensitive and most used technique.