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mRNA Body-Fluid Profiling

Definition

The RT-PCR-based descendant of Northern blotting: tissue-specific messenger RNA transcripts are reverse-transcribed and amplified from crime-scene stains to identify body fluid of origin. Validated at the NFI (Netherlands), BKA (Germany), and FBI Laboratory for blood, semen, saliva, and vaginal secretion identification.

Related terms

Microarray (Gene Chip / SNP Chip)
A solid-phase hybridisation platform carrying thousands to millions of oligonucleotide probes at spatially registered positions. Hybridisation of a labelled target simultaneously queries...
Minisatellite (VNTR)
A hypervariable genomic locus characterised by tandem repeats of a 10-60 bp core sequence, with the number of repeat units varying between...
Molecular Hybridisation
The formation of a double-stranded nucleic acid molecule from two complementary single strands, driven by hydrogen-bond formation between base pairs (A-T, G-C...
Southern Blot
A technique (E.M. Southern, 1975) in which restriction-digested DNA fragments are separated by gel electrophoresis, transferred to a membrane, and hybridised with...
Stringency
The extent to which hybridisation conditions favour only perfectly complementary probe-target pairs over partially mismatched ones. High stringency (elevated temperature and/or low...
Western Blot (Protein Immunoblot)
SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of proteins followed by electrotransfer to a PVDF or nitrocellulose membrane, then antibody-based detection of a specific protein...

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