INTERNAL CONTROL AND METHOD FOR SURVEILLANCE OF GAP-LCR

摘要

There is disclosed an internal control for being used in a "Gap-filling Ligase Chain Reaction" (Gap-LCR). The synthetic oligonucleotide functioning as the internal control has approximately the same length and identical four LCR probe sites as the target nucleic acid. The internal control and the target DNA is consequently amplified in a Gap-LCR with substantially equal efficiency. Additionally the synthetic oligonucleotide is modified in the gapsequence between the hybridised LCR-probes in such a way that it contains a site for a restriction enzyme. By treating the LCR product with this restriction enzyme, the enzyme will cleave the PCR product from the internal control, whereas the LCR product from the target may be analyzed separately. The disclosed internal control may thus be used both in qualitative and in quantitative LCR-based analyses.