Adapted from Kendall and Riley (1999).
Quantitative PCR
Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) incorporates a DNA-binding fluorescent dye or dye-labelled probe to allow monitoring of DNA amplification in real-time (Bustin, 2010). For example, SYBR® Green I is a fluorescent dye that binds to double-stranded DNA, but not to single-stranded DNA.
Applications
Both DNA and RNA can be analyzed by qPCR. When starting with RNA, reverse transcription is required to create complementary DNA (cDNA) for qPCR.