RACE to the 5' End

Invitrogen's Gene Racer Kit

Expressed sequence tags are powerful tools for gene expression studies, but when there is simply no substitute for a full-length cDNA, researchers turn to protocols for the Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE). RACE techniques couple cDNA synthesis with a method that attaches a "known" sequence to the end of the gene to enable PCR amplification. Knowing the 5' end of a transcript can aid promoter, gene mapping, and alternate exon usage analyses. Unfortunately, 5' RACE is often hampered by a number of technical difficulties. "Fragmented RNA, premature termination of cDNA synthesis due to secondary structure, and a strong bias in PCR for short amplicons all contribute to the deserved reputation of RACE as a difficult and failure-prone technique," observes Eric Lader, senior scientist at Ambion of Austin, Texas.

Enter the FirstChoice^™ RLM-RACE Kit from Ambion and the GeneRacer^™ Kit from Invitrogen of...