RT PCR Data Plagiarism Their Ignorance and Impact

Abstract

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a technique based on the ability of DNA polymerase to synthesize a new strand of DNA which is complementary to the template strand offered and amplifying this strand to billions of amplicons. There are different types of PCR reactions for different types of experiments but reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is most commonly used PCR reactions in the field of genomics and proteomics basically at mRNA level. A wide range of procedures have been devised for studying PCR products like gel electrophoresis, cloning and sequencing of PCR products, etc. The PCR products from gel electrophoresis are in the form of images, therefore image processing techniques are commonly used to analyze these images in three main steps i.e. band detection, band matching, and data quantification. Image processing sometimes alters the intensity of image which can at points improve the visualization of the data. But if that image alteration mischaracterizes the data, one has gone too far and this is known as plagiarism. Therefore, it is important to safeguard and protect the original, unaltered image in order to avoid the accusations of misconduct which will stand or fall on the basis of whether or not the original image is available to be compared with its altered copies. For example, investigators whose work fall under the food and drug administration’s (FDA’s) “Final Rule on Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures” must maintain the integrity of the original image. Similarly, industries whose work products are used in forensic activities or in health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) related aspects of health care might be required to maintain an original image. Therefore, the plagiarism of RT-PCR data has tremendous impact on research if left ignored as seen through the above examples and therefore should be taken care.