Question

Difference between real time pcr and conventional pcr

Answer 1

Conventional PCR is used to detect the presence or absence of certain genomic fragments, whereas Real-Time PCR is used to detect the expression level of that fragment in the organism.

Conventional PCR is more time consuming, as it uses agarose gel eletrophoresis to detect the amplified PCR products. Whereas, Real Time PCR is less time consuming as it can detect the amplifications during the run after each cycle.

Conventional PCR collects data at the end-point of the reaction, where as Real Time PCR collects data during the exponential phase.

Conventional PCR has very poor resolution(minimum 10 fold change) while real-time PCR can detect very little changes(minimum 2 fold change) due to the high resolution.

Conventional PCR uses Ethidium Bromide and UV light to visualize bands in the agarose gel medium, while Real Time PCR uses fluorescent dyes to detect the product.