Performed reverse transcription on the Olympia oyster DNased RNA from the control samples and the 1hr heat shock samples of Jake’s project. To accommodate the large numbers of anticipated genes to be targeted in subsequent qPCRs, I prepared 100μL reactions (normally, 25μL reactions are prepared) using 250ng of each DNased RNA. A 1:10 dilution of the oligo dT primers (Promega) was prepared to improve pipetting accuracy. All incubations were performed in a thermal cycler without using a heated lid.

DNased RNA was combined with NanoPure H2O and oligo dT primers in 48 wells of a PCR plate, heated @ 70C for 10mins and immediately placed on ice. After 5mins, the plate was spun 2000g @ RT for 2mins and returned to ice.

25.25μL of a master mix containing 5x M-MLV Buffer (Promega), dNTPs (10mM each; Promega), and M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase (50U/rxn; Promega) was distributed to each well and mixed via pipetting. The plate was heated @ 42C for 1hr, 95C for 3mins. The plate was spun 2000g @ RT for 2mins and then stored @ -20C.

Plate layout and all calculations can be found here (Google Sheet): 20150616_Jake_Oly_cDNA_Calcs