Question

How would I determine if a gene is upregulated in when exposed to a pathogen-secreted effector molecule as opposed to normal regulation and what would the positive and negative controls be for this? Would a northern blot be recommended?

Answer 1

upregulation means to increase the expression in the presence of a stimulus. by the RT-PCR we can determine the expression of the gene. if the pathogen effector molecule enhances the expression act as a positive control and in absence pathogen effector it acts as a negative control. northern blot is useful for the screening of gene expression. In the presence of the pathogen, the effector increases the expression ultimately increase the synthesis of mRNA which is detected by the northern blot.