QF-PCR stands for Quantitative Fluorescence-Polymerase Chain Reaction. QF-PCR is a laboratory technique used to amplify specific regions of DNA and quantify the amount of DNA present in those regions.

What are the applications of QF-PCR?
QF-PCR can be used to detect the presence of additional chromosomes (aneuploidy) in patients. This can be useful for the detection of Down syndrome (3 copies of chromosome 21), Edwards Syndrome (3 copies of chromosome 18) and Patau syndrome (3 copies of chromosome 13). This technique can also be used to identify any sex chromosome aneuploidy.

How does QF-PCR work?
Specific DNA markers (called Short Tandem Repeats or STRs) are found across the across the chromosomes. In QF-PCR, 3- 5 STR markets across chromosomes 13, 18, 21 and each sex chromosome are amplified by PCR. The primers used to amplify each section of DNA are labelled with different coloured fluorescent tags and the amplification products are different sizes.

The amount of fluorescence and size of the DNA which has been copied is measured, and ratios are presented graphically and allow distinctions of the chromosomal regions. The number of peaks and height of each peak shows the number of copies of alleles at that region on the chromosome in the DNA sample.

Learn about Elucigene's QST*R range of QF-PCR kits

Learn about excluding sex chromosomes from Rapid Aneuploidy Testing