Since primers used for PCR amplify the same gene of interest, can conventional PCR primers be used for qPCR and vice versa?
Typically, you would use different primers. End-point PCR primers often product products that are too large to be efficient enough in qPCR. Also, any primers that anneal to non-coding regions (introns, 5'UTR, etc.) won't be able to anneal to cDNA.
In general, you can use most (but not all) qPCR primers for end point PCR. The caveat is that most folks will purposefully design qPCR primers that are "intron spanning" so that qPCR primers can't amplify genomic DNA. And the products tend to be very small (100-150bp) so they won't be very bright on an agarose gel.
Compare the gDNA and cDNA for your genes of interest and see if you can use primers for both types of reactions. Good luck!
- Badges
- Science method