Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR).

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has become a well-established and powerful molecular technique for studying ribonucleic acids. It is used in medical diagnostics for detecting viral RNA, in hematology and oncology for detecting chimeric transcripts of rearranged genes (1), and in the broad area of research applications in gene expression studies. Since its introduction (2,3) the method is constantly finding new applications, especially in projects aimed at detecting and cloning differentially expressed genes (4,5).