| Abstract: | Techniques based on nucleic acid amplification techniques, like PCR, are quick, sensitive and specific, and therefore very suitable for the development of diagnostic tests. These techniques enable the detection of very small amounts of target organisms by specific amplification of part of its genome. This exquisite sensitivity puts a high demand on measures to prevent false‐positive reactions due to contamination of the laboratory with nucleic acid, hence the need for inclusion of negative controls. In addition, to exclude false negatives, the performance of the reactions must be measured by the inclusion of several positive controls, e.g. cytochrome oxidase (COX) primers (and probes) to monitor efficiency of the nucleic acid extraction and an internal control to monitor inhibition of the target PCR. For the RT‐PCR assay for Potato spindle tuber pospiviroid (PSTVd) recently described by Boonham and coworkers, we have developed an exogenous internal standard, i.e. in vitro RNA transcribed from a plasmid containing a modified PSTVd sequence (a 17‐bp sequence of cloned PSTVd (isolate Howell) was substituted for a 118‐bp sequence of Escherichia coli). To this exogenous sequence, a specific probe was designed with a fluorescent label different from that of the PSTVd‐specific probe. By making use of the same primers as the target organism PSTVd, this internal standard provides a tool to measure the performance of the specific reaction. Moreover, by using another fluorescent probe, this standard can easily be discriminated from the target organism. The approach used for the construction of the internal control for PSTVd offers a tool for the construction of internal standards for other pathogens. |
