Refinements of the Differential Display Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique: Use of Oligo(dT)-Based Anchored Primers with Escherichia coli Messenger RNA Identifies a Salt-Induced Promoter in the dcw Gene Cluster

Abstract

Differential display reverse transcription PCR (DDRT–PCR)2 is a popular technique used to identify differences in messenger RNA species expressed under different conditions (1–4). The use of this technique in prokaryotic systems has been greatly hampered by the lack of a poly(A) tail at the 39 end of these messages, resulting in the use of random primers to define both ends of the PCR products, in turn leading to lower probability of identifying any differentially expressed gene.