Universal Reference Total RNA

Certificates of Analysis

Clontech Universal Reference Total RNAs are total RNA controls derived from whole tissue sources. Each species-specific Reference Total RNA is made by pooling the total RNA extracts from a collection of different tissues, thus providing the broadest coverage of expressed genes (Figure 1).

Easily Compare Microarray Results

With Reference Total RNA, you can easily compare microarray data generated from different experiments. Simply hybridize a Reference Total RNA probe to a microarray each time you perform an experiment and then use the control signal to normalize your results. We provide enough Reference Total RNA for up to 80 microarray experiments depending on the labeling technique. Since these RNA mixes are prepared on an industrial scale, there are minimal lot-to-lot variations. Our Reference Total RNA is the best approach for building gene expression databases to compare expression profiles from different tissues or cell lines.

Optimized Gene Representation

In developing this standard, we compared the results of a number of different tissue combinations to identify the most representative mix. In comparison to a competitor’s RNA standard made from cell lines, we found that using pooled RNA extracted from whole tissues provided better gene representation and more homogenous signal intensities across all genes. Additionally, pooled-tissue RNA samples have very stable expression profiles, providing a high level of reproducibility between different lots. As a result, our Reference Total RNA consistently outperforms the competition in terms of gene coverage and hybridization consistency.