Stratagene has developed reverse transcriptase-mediated polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) primer sets for genes whose products are important in the induction or regulation of the apoptotic response. These primers will find application in diverse disciplines, including developmental biology, immunology, and tumor biology. By using these primers, researchers will be able to analyze the transcription state of genes in uninduced cells and cells induced to undergo apoptosis.

The RT-PCR primer sets for studying the apoptotic response were designed to meet several criteria: (1) The primers sets, based on known genomic sequences, amplify a region that spans at least one intron. (2) To distinguish the amplification products from genomic sequences, which are longer than the cDNA products, the primer sets amplify PCR products that are 400 bp to 650 bp in length. (3) The primers were synthesized as 18- to 27-mer oligonucleotides and maintain close to 50% GC content whenever possible. (4) Each set of primers amplifies only a specific target

Testing Primers with cDNA Templates

Table 1
Target Genes and Expected Size of the PCR Product