IMPROVED EFFICIENCY FOR PRIMER EXTENSION BY USING A LONG, HIGHLY-LABELED PRIMER GENERATED FROM IMMOBILIZED SINGLE-STRANDED-DNA TEMPLATES

Primer extension is one of the most common methods used to measure the amount and size of RNAs. We demonstrate that the sensitivity and the specificity of this method are improved considerably by using a highly -labeled single-stranded DNA generated from a biotinylated single-stra nded DNA template, as a long specific primer in the reverse transcript ion reaction. This new approach allows the detection of transcripts wi th a low expression level from microgram quantities of total RNA.