Question

Which of the following techniques would allow you to determine whether a gene is alternatively spliced?

a) In situ hybridization

b) Northern blot

c) Southern blot

d) genomic DNA sequencing

I honestly need help with this; I first thought it was Northern blot, but I'm starting to second guess myself on that and genomic DNA sequencing. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The most correct answer is Northern blotting.

All the three other options are used for detection of DNA not RNA. While alternative splicing is the posttranscriptional modification of mRNA.

Northern blotting is a molecular technique to study gene expression by detection of RNA. In thismethod the RNA is electrophoresed and separated on the basis of size. We know that the original mRNA is always greater than spliced mRNA so they will be differentially visible on the blot at different position and we will be able to check that whether the splicing is successful or not.Here only one probe type is used and the variance in the level of each band on the membrane then give an insight into the size of the product, revealing alternative splice products of the same gene or repetitive sequence motifs.