Differential display

Differential display (also referred to as DDRT-PCR or DD-PCR) is the technique where a researcher can compare and identify changes in gene expression at the mRNA level between any pair of eukaryotic cell samples. The assay may be extended to more than one pair, if needed. The paired samples will have morphological, genetic or other experimental differences for which the researcher wishes to study the gene expression patterns, hoping to elucidate the root cause of the particular difference or specific genes that are affected by the experiment.

The concept of differential display is to use a limited number of short arbitrary primers in combination with the anchored oligo-dT primers to systematically amplify and visualize most of the mRNA in a cell. Since its invention in the early 1990s, differential display has become one of the most commonly used techniques for identifying differentially expressed genes at the mRNA level. Different streamlined DD-PCR protocols have been proposed including fluorescent DD process as well as radioactive labeling, which offers high accuracy and readout.

In the mid 2000's, differential display and RNAse protection assay were superseeded by DNA Microarrays, RNA-seq and qRT-PCR.