View source for Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism

'''Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism''' (TRFLP or sometimes T-RFLP) is a [[molecular biology]] technique initially developed for characterizing bacterial communities in mixed-species samples. The technique has also been applied to other groups including soil [[fungus|fungi]].

The technique works by [[PCR]] amplification of [[DNA]] using [[primer (molecular biology)]] pairs that have been labels with fluorescent tags.  The PCR products are then digested using [[RFLP]] enzymes and the resulting patterns visualized using a [[DNA sequencer]].  The results are analyzed either by simply counting and comparing bands or peaks in the TRFLP profile, or by matching bands from one or more TRFLP runs to a database of known species.

The technique is similar in some aspects to [[DGGE]] or [[TGGE]].

== References ==

* Liu, W.T., T.L. Marsh, H. Cheng and L.J. Forney. 1997. Characterization of microbial diversity by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of genes encoding 16S rRNA. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:4516-4522.

* Marsh, T.L. 1999. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP): an emerging method for characterizing diversity among homologous populations of amplification products. [[Current Opinion in Microbiology]]. 2:323-327.


[[Category:Molecular biology]]
[[Category:Biochemistry]]
[[Category:Laboratory techniques]]
[[Category:Electrophoresis]]

{{biology-stub}}