Development of a multiplex gene amplification protocol for ribosomal protein genes associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The amplification of multiple genes in a single reaction is a fairly new and not fully understood aspect of the Polymerase Chain Reaction as the factors which affect its optimal reaction varies based on the genes used. The factors which usually play a major role in the optimization is the concentration of magnesium chloride and also the concentration of the primers. These two factors were tested in this study with the genes being RPL14 and RPS15 from the normal Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma cell line. Incorporated within this project was techniques such as Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and Restriction Enzyme Digestion, which the end goal was to achieve a simultaneous amplification of both genes in a single reaction. The expected amplicon sizes of the genes being 115bp and 773bp for RPS15 and RPL14 respectively would be able to give a clear indication as to the capabilities of the genes being amplified together, and that was achieved at the end of this study