Effect of oligonucleotide primers in determining viral variability within hosts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genetic variability in viral populations is usually estimated by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods in which the relative abundance of each amplicon is assumed to be proportional to the frequency of the corresponding template in the initial sample. Although bias in template-to-product ratios has been described before, its relevance in describing viral genetic variability at the intrapatient level has not been fully assessed yet.

Results

To investigate the role of oligonucleotide design in estimating viral variability within hosts, genetic diversity in hepatitis C virus (HCV) populations from eight infected patients was characterised by two parallel PCR amplifications performed with two slightly different sets of primers, followed by cloning and

SUBMITTER: Bracho MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC543450 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature