Performed reverse transcription on the Olympia oyster DNased RNA from the 1hr post-mechanical stress samples from 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 24 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): 20150806_Jake_oly_mech_stress_cDNA_calcs