Publications

A community resource for high-throughput quantitative RT-PCR analysis of transcription factor gene expression in Medicago truncatula

Kakar K, Wandrey M, Czechowski T, Gaertner T, Scheible WR, Stitt M, Torres-Jerez I, Xiao Y, Redman JC, Wu HC, Cheung F, Town CD, Udvardi MK

PMID: 18611268

Abstract

Medicago truncatula is a model legume species that is currently the focus of an international genome sequencing effort. Although several different oligonucleotide and cDNA arrays have been produced for genome-wide transcript analysis of this species, intrinsic limitations in the sensitivity of hybridization-based technologies mean that transcripts of genes expressed at low-levels cannot be measured accurately with these tools. Amongst such genes are many encoding transcription factors (TFs), which are arguably the most important class of regulatory proteins. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is the most sensitive method currently available for transcript quantification, and one that can be scaled up to analyze transcripts of thousands of genes in parallel. Thus, qRT-PCR is an ideal method to tackle the problem of TF transcript quantification in Medicago and other plants.