Includes bibliographical references and index.

TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Quantitative PCR : a survey of the present technology -- General principles of quantitative PCR -- Effects of collection, processing, and storage on RNA detection and quantification -- Quantitative RT-PCR -- Kinetic quantitative PCR vs end-point quantitative PCR with internal standard -- Comparison of competitive PCR and positive control-based PCR -- End-point titration-PCR and positive PCR and positive control-based PCR -- End-point titration-PCR for quantitation of cytomegalovirus DNA -- Analysis of amplified DNA moleculkes by capillary electrophoresis and laser induced fluorescence -- Competitor calibration and analysis of competitive amplified PCR products by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) -- Quantifying amplicons with ELISA. TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT'D -- Competitive PCR quantitation utilizing a microtiter plate based format for the detection of PCR products -- Competitive and differential RT-PCR (CD-RT-PCR) for measurement of normalized gene expression using antisense competitors -- Amplified assay for specific dual-labeled DNA using the coagulation cascade (EDNA-ELCA) -- Quantitative PCR with internal standardization and OLA-ELISA product analysis for the p53 tumor suppressor gene -- Quantitative analysis of human DNA sequences by PCR and solid-phase minisequencing -- High resolution PCR quantitation by amplisensor assay -- Construction of polycompetitors for competitive PCR -- Tailed RT-PCR for the quantitation of Chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT)mRNA -- A stochastic PCR approach for RNA quantification in multiple samples -- Quantitation of mRNA species by RT-PCR on total mRNA population with nonradioactive probes.