1. Lecture – FALL 2017
PCR and RT PCT

2. RT PCR is NOT Real-Time PCR !
What is Real-Time PCR (Q PCR) and what is it used for?
RT PCR is NOT Real-Time PCR !

3. What is Real-Time PCR?
The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a process for the amplification of specific fragments of DNA.
Real-Time PCR a specialized technique that allows a PCR reaction to be visualized “in real time” as the reaction progresses.
QPCR
As we will see, Real-Time PCR allows us to measure minute amounts of DNA sequences in a sample!

4. What is Real-Time PCR used for?
Real-Time PCR has become a cornerstone of molecular biology:
Gene expression analysis
Cancer research
Drug research
Disease diagnosis and management
Viral quantification
Food testing
Percent GMO food
Animal and plant breeding
Gene copy number

5. Real-Time PCR in Gene Expression Analysis
Example: BRCA1 Expression Profiling
BRCA1 is a gene involved in tumor suppression.
BRCA1 controls the expression of other genes.
In order to monitor level of expression of BRCA1, real-time PCR is used.
DNA
BRCA1
mRNA
Protein

6. Real-Time PCR in Disease Management
Example: HIV Treatment
Drug treatment for HIV infection often depends on monitoring the “viral load”.
Real-Time PCR allows for direct measurement of the amount of the virus RNA in the patient.
Virus
RNA

7. How does Real-Time PCR work?

8. How does real-time PCR work?
To best understand what real-time PCR is, let’s review how regular PCR works...

9. Polymerase Chain Reaction
“Amplify” large quantities of DNA (μg quantities) from small quantities (fg quantities) [billion fold amplification]
Analyze single DNA fragments out of large complex mixture. [ Human genome mixture of 12 million 300bp fragments]
Alter DNA sequence – directed mutagenesis.

10. Overview of PCR Temperature Cycling Denaturation 94° Annealing 55°
Extension 72°
2. Every cycle DNA between primers is duplicated

11. PCR Amplification

12. Exponential Amplification
30 cycles billion copies in theory

13. Components of PCR Reaction
Template DNA
Flanking Primers
Thermo-stable polymerase
Taq Polymerase
dNTP
(dATP, dTTP, dCTP, dGTP)
PCR Buffer (mg++)
Thermocyler
Thermus aquaticus

14. PCR Variables Temperature Cycle Times and Temps Primer Buffer
Polymerase

15. Temperature Denaturation Annealing Extension
Trade off between denaturing DNA and not denaturing Taq Polymerase
Taq half-life 40min at 95 °, 10min at 97.5°
95°
Annealing
Trade off between efficient annealling and specificity
2-5 ° below Tm
Extension
Temperature optimum for Taq
Polymerase
72 °

16. Cycle Times and Temps Typical PCR Run Step Time/Temp 3 min at 95°
30-45 sec at 95°
45sec-1 min at 55°
2 min at 72°
Go to step times
2-8 min 72°
0 min 4°
End

18. Primers Paired flanking primers Length (17-28bp) GC content 50-60%
Tm’s between 52-80
Avoid simple sequences – e.g. strings of G’s

19. PCR Buffer Basic Components
20mM Tris-HCL pH 8.4
50mM KCl
1.5 mM MgCl2
Magnesium – Since Mg ions form complexes with dNTPs, primers and
DNA templates, the optimal concentration of MgCl2 has to be selected for each experiment. Too few Mg2+ ions result in a low yield of PCR product, and too many increase the yield of non-specific products and promote misincorporation.
Potential Additives
Helix Destabilisers - useful when target DNA is high G/CWith NAs of high (G+C) content.
dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO),
dimethyl formamide (DMF),
urea
formamide 
Long Targets >1kb. Formamide and glycerol  
Low concentration of template: Polyethylene glycol (PEG)

20. PCR Polymerases Taq, Vent, Pfu, others Native or Cloned Half-life
e.g. Taq 40 min half-life, Vent 7 hour half-life
3’-5’ Exo nuclease – proofreading
Processivity
Extra bases at end

21. Notes Typical Reaction 32.5 μl dH2O 5 μl 10 X PCR buffer + mg
1 μl μM dNTP
0.5 μl 50 μM Left Primer
0.5 μl 50 μM Right Primer
10 μl DNA sample
0.5 μl Taq Pol (5 Units/ μl)
50 μl Total Vol

22. DNA con? Use high quality, purified DNA templates
Approximately 104 copies of target DNA are required to detect product in PCR cycles
Use 1pg–1ng of plasmid or viral templates
Use 1ng–1µg of genomic templates
Higher DNA concentrations decrease amplicon specificity (i.e., extra bands are more likely), particularly when a large number of cycles are employed
Use the higher DNA concentrations when fewer cycles are desired (e.g., to increase fidelity)

23. How does Real-Time PCR work?
…So that’s how traditional PCR is usually presented.
In order to understand real-time PCR, let’s use a “thought experiment”, and save all of the calculations and formulas until later…
Most importantly, we’ll start by imagining the PCR itself, and only then will we draw graphs to illustrate what’s going on.

24. Imagining Real-Time PCR
To understand real-time PCR, let’s imagine ourselves in a PCR reaction tube at cycle number 25…
Imagining Real-Time PCR

25. What’s in our tube, at cycle number 25?
A soup of nucleotides, primers, template, amplicons, enzyme, etc.
1,000,000 copies of the amplicon right now.

26. What was it like last cycle, 24?
Almost exactly the same, except there were only 500,000 copies of the amplicon.
And the cycle before that, 23?
Almost the same, but only 250,000 copies of the amplicon.
And what about cycle 22?
Not a whole lot different. 125,000 copies of the amplicon.

27. If we were to graph the amount of DNA in our tube, from the start until right now, at cycle 25, the graph would look like this:

28. So, right now we’re at cycle 25 in a soup with 1,000,000 copies of the target.
What’s it going to be like after the next cycle, in cycle 26? ?

29. What’s it going to be like after the next cycle, in cycle 26?
Probably there will be 2,000,000 amplicons.
And cycle 27?
Maybe 4,000,000 amplicons.
And at cycle 200?
In theory, there would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000 amplicons…
Or 10^35 tonnes of DNA…
To put this in perspective, that would be equivalent to the weight of ten billion planets the size of Earth!!!!

30. So exponential growth does not go on forever!
A clump of DNA the size of ten billion planets won’t quite fit in our PCR tube anymore.
Realistically, at the chain reaction progresses, it gets exponentially harder to find primers, and nucleotides. And the polymerase is wearing out.
So exponential growth does not go on forever!

31. If we plot the amount of DNA in our tube going forward from cycle 25, we see that it actually looks like this:

32. Let’s imagine that you start with four times as much DNA as I do…picture our two tubes at cycle 25 and work backwards a few cycles.
Cycle 25
Cycle Me
You 23
250,000
1,000,000 24
500,000
2,000,000 25
4,000,000

33. So, if YOU started with FOUR times as much DNA template as I did…
…Then you’d reach 1,000,000 copies exactly TWO cycles earlier than I would!

34. What if YOU started with EIGHT times LESS DNA template than I did?
Cycle 25
Cycle Me
You 25
1,000,000
125,000 26
2,000,000
250,000 27
4,000,000
500,000 28
8,000,000

35. What if YOU started with EIGHT times LESS DNA template than I did?
You’d only have 125,000 copies right now at cycle 25…
And you’d reach 1,000,000 copies exactly THREE cycles later than I would!

36. This is called the “Ct Value”.
We describe the position of the lines with a value that represents the cycle number where the trace crosses an arbitrary threshold.
This is called the “Ct Value”.
Ct values are directly related to the starting quantity of DNA, by way of the formula:
Quantity = 2^Ct

38. What does real-time data look like?

39. Real-Time PCR Actual Data
This is some actual data from a recent real- time PCR run.
Data like this can easily be generated by preparing a dilution series of DNA.
Real-Time PCR Actual Data
c366939

40. Real-Time PCR Actual Data
The same data set in log view
Real-Time PCR Actual Data

41. Real-Time PCR Setting Thresholds
Once threshold is set, Ct values can be calculated automatically by software.
Real-Time PCR Setting Thresholds
Ct values can then be used to calculate quantities of template DNA.

42. The fluorescence data collected during PCR tells us “how much” … but there is another type of analysis we can do that tells us “what”!
c366939

43. Real-Time PCR – the Concept of MELT CURVES…
Melt curves can tell us what products are in a reaction.
Based on the principle that as DNA melts (becomes single stranded), intercalating dyes will no longer bind and fluoresce.
Real-Time PCR – the Concept of MELT CURVES… 5’ 3’ ID ID ID
COLD 5’ 3’ ID
MEDIUM 5’ 3’ 3’ 5’
HOT 5’ 3’

44. Real-Time PCR The Concept of MELT CURVES
Different amplicons will have different melt peaks.
Primer-Dimers will have a very different melt peak.
Real-Time PCR The Concept of MELT CURVES
Color key: Green=100X, Red=10000X, Blue= X , Black=NTC.