Bio 480 qPCR Lab Report Guidelines (80 pts)
This is a group assignment. Both a hard copy and an electronic copy (uploaded to Canvas) must be
submitted by Friday Dec 5th 9:05 am. Rather than a full report, you will write several sections of a lab
report outlining the qPCR validation of the chicken RNA-seq experiments you conducted in class.
Title/Abstract: Informative title, author information, and summary the entire experiment in ~200 –
400 words. What problem was addressed? What were the major results? What conclusions were
drawn? Since you are not required to write a formal introduction section, you can put a bit of intro
material here if you like.
Methods: In light of your microarray lab report, omit all of the RNA extraction, quality/quantity
assessment, and cDNA synthesis methods. Focus only on computational methods used to sort
through RNA-seq data, select genes, and design primers as well as the qPCR experiment and
analysis. Specifically include:
 Ensemble BioMart GO Term analysis
 UCSC Genome Browser and ApE sequence analysis
 IDT PrimerQuest primer design
 qPCR set up and analysis
Results: Data should be clearly presented in figures and tables (with legends and titles respectively)
with supporting text to tell the story about how the data was generated and what the data are. Figures
should be clearly labeled so that someone can evaluate the data. Specifically include:
 Table with relevant RNA-seq stats such as significantly up/downregulated genes and any other
attributes that you think are notable for your experiment.
 Table listing gene and primer sequence info (note: all primers should be indicated in 5’ to 3’
orientation
 Figure with qPCR expression data
 Figure with UCSC Genome Browser view of your gene with some data tracks
Discussion/Conclusion: Briefly discuss your results in light of original problem addressed. Discuss
any unexpected results or experimental error that might have occurred. What are the biological
implications of your results? How can you apply what you learned to future experiments? In light of
your data, what new questions do you now have about development of the vertebrate retina and how
could you experimentally test those questions? Here are some general questions to be addressed:
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Discuss the reason for doing your particular experiment - restate the goal of the experiment
Discuss the quality of the group data
Discuss the results you generated
Discuss any problems in the procedures.
What would you do to continue this experiment?
Literature Cited: Cite published research articles and web resources used to construct your report