nuclear run-on for low abundant RNA

[Chris Hughes]

In article <1996Jun28.180353.17694 at alw.nih.gov>, bernard at elsie.nci.nih.gov
(Bernard Murray) wrote:


> 
> An alternative is to look at the level of hnRNA for your transcript.
 (...as apposed to doing a run-off.)

Whoa...hang-on there.  I haven't read the article yet but looking at the
level of hnRNA measures the *combined* rates of transcription *and*
processing. It is not necessarily a good substitute for a run-off as
regulation of processing seems to be an important rate limiting step for
some genes.  See for example some of the recent literature on regulation
of processing and transcription of the IL-2 gene.  We developed a PCR
method for comparing processed and non-processed RNA levels but could
never convince ourselves that we were measuring transcription rate per se.

Just something to bear in mind.

Chris Hughes

-- 
Dr. Chris C.W. Hughes                   
Dept. Mol. Biol. & Biochem.
Biol. Sci. II
Univ. California, Irvine                 cchughes at uci.edu  
Irvine CA 92717                          ph (714)  824 8771