The first comprehensive treatise on Rapid Cycle Real-Time PCR. With amplification times of 15-30 minutes of on-line detection and analysis, nucleic acid quantification of mutation analysis finally becomes a routine, powerful and rapid method. Focusing primarily on the LightCycler, an instrument that combines Rapid Cycle PCR with fluorescent monitoring, this technology provides convenient analysis by melting temperatures. PCR products can be identified by product Tm, and single base mismatches can easily be genotyped by probe Tm. Methods chapters detail the theory behind quantification of mutation analysis; the design of synthesis of fluorescent hybridization probes of the preparation of template DNA. Application chapters apply nucleid acid quantification to infectious organisms of intracellular messengers and mutation detection to somatic of acquired mutations.

Rapid Cycle Real-Time PCR is a powerful technique for nucleic acid quantification and analysis that takes less than 30 minutes to complete. Fluorescence is automatically monitored each cycle and the amount of template quantified by advanced analytical methods, such as the second derivative maximum method. Immediately following rapid cycle PCR, melting curve analysis is performed to verify product purity with SYBR Green I and/or genotype with fluorescently-labeled hybridization probes(HybProbes or SimpleProbes). Rapid cycle real-time PCR is often cited as the most versatile, efficient method for nucleic acid quantification in research and climical studies. Molecular analysis has never been easier!

Geneticists and molecular biologists have been interested in quantifying genes and their products for many years and for various reasons (Bishop, 1974). Early molecular methods were based on molecular hybridization, and were devised shortly after Marmur and Doty (1961) first showed that denaturation of the double helix could be reversed - that the process of molecular reassociation was exquisitely sequence dependent. Gillespie and Spiegelman (1965) developed a way of using the method to titrate the number of copies of a probe within a target sequence in which the target sequence was fixed to a membrane support prior to hybridization with the probe - typically a RNA. Thus, this was a precursor to many of the methods still in use, and indeed under development, today. Early examples of the application of these methods included the measurement of the copy numbers in gene families such as the ribosomal genes and the immunoglo bulin family. Amplification of genes in tumors and in response to drug treatment was discovered by this method. In the same period, methods were invented for estimating gene num bers based on the kinetics of the reassociation process - the so-called Cot analysis. This method, which exploits the dependence of the rate of reassociation on the concentration of the two strands, revealed the presence of repeated sequences in the DNA of higher eukaryotes (Britten and Kohne, 1968). An adaptation to RNA, Rot analysis (Melli and Bishop, 1969), was used to measure the abundance of RNAs in a mixed population.

Rapid Cycle Real-Time PCR is a powerful analytical tool with broad application for the basic and applied life sciences. Compared with conventional PCR technology, Rapid Cycle Real-Time PCR is faster, has greater specificity, and is more easily adaptable for a variety of diagnostic tests, including qualitative, quantitative and mutation detection assays. This book provides general overviews of this technology for use in the clinical microbiology laboratory as well as specific diagnostic protocols for the detection of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens and genetically modified organisms in human specimens and foodstuffs. All of these protocols have been developed, verified, and validated by experts in the field and should be of great interest for clinical microbiologists, pathologists, laboratory technologists as well as practicing physicians.

James D. Watson When, in late March of 1953, Francis Crick and I came to write the first Nature paper describing the double helical structure of the DNA molecule, Francis had wanted to include a lengthy discussion of the genetic implications of a molecule whose struc ture we had divined from a minimum of experimental data and on theoretical argu ments based on physical principles. But I felt that this might be tempting fate, given that we had not yet seen the detailed evidence from King's College. Nevertheless, we reached a compromise and decided to include a sentence that pointed to the biological significance of the molecule's key feature-the complementary pairing of the bases. "It has not escaped our notice," Francis wrote, "that the specific pairing that we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." By May, when we were writing the second Nature paper, I was more confident that the proposed structure was at the very least substantially correct, so that this second paper contains a discussion of molecular self-duplication using templates or molds. We pointed out that, as a consequence of base pairing, a DNA molecule has two chains that are complementary to each other. Each chain could then act ". . . as a template for the formation on itself of a new companion chain, so that eventually we shall have two pairs of chains, where we only had one before" and, moreover, " ...

Rapid-Cycle Real-Time PCR is a powerful technique for nucleic acid amplification and analysis that often requires less than half an hour to perform. Samples are amplified by rapid-cycle PCR followed by immediate melting curve analysis in the same instrument. Melting curve analysis of PCR products with SYBR Green I often allows product identification without gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, in the presence of fluorescent hybridization probes, melting curves provide "dynamic dot blots" for fine sequence analysis, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The method is often cited as the most versatile, efficient method for nucleic acid analysis in research and diagnostics in the fields of genetics and oncology. Molecular diagnostics has never been easier!