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Real-time RT-PCR "EMPOWER IAS"

News:

  • The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), offering its support to help countries use reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) for detecting, tracking, and studying the coronavirus.

 

About real-time RT-PCR:

  • Real-time RT-PCR is a nuclear-derived method for detecting the presence of specific genetic material from any pathogen, including a virus. 
  • Originally, the method used radioactive isotope markers to detect targeted genetic materials, but subsequent refining has led to the replacement of the isotopic labelling with special markers, most frequently fluorescent dyes. 
  • With this technique, scientists can see the results almost immediately while the process is still ongoing; conventional RT-PCR only provides results at the end.
  • Recently, this technique has also been employed to diagnose other diseases such as Ebola, Zika, MERS-Cov, SARS-Cov1, and other major zoonotic and animal diseases. Zoonotic diseases are animal diseases that can also infect humans. 

 

What is a virus? What is the genetic material?

  • A virus is a microscopic package of genetic material surrounded by a molecular envelope. The genetic material can be either DNA or RNA. 
  • DNA is a two-strand molecule that is found in all organisms, such as animals, plants, and viruses, and it holds the genetic code, or blueprint, for how these organisms are made and develop.
  • RNA is generally a one-strand molecule that copies transcribe and transmits parts of the genetic code to proteins so they can synthesize and carry out functions that keep organisms alive and developing. There are different variations of RNA that do the copying, transcribing and transmitting.
  • Some viruses such as the coronavirus (SARS-Cov2) only contain RNA, which means they rely on infiltrating healthy cells to multiply and survive.
  • In order for a virus-like a coronavirus to be detected early in the body using real-time RT-PCR, scientists need to convert the RNA to DNA. This is a process called ‘reverse transcription’