A patient has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and her physician wants to know if her tumor cells have a TP53 mutation. Which of the following laboratory methods is performed most often and will give the best information regarding whether TP53 mutations are present in her tumor cells?

Whole blood was sent to the laboratory for viral load determination of HIV (an RNA virus). It was received on a Saturday morning, and the technologist working in the receiving section of the laboratory put the tube in the refrigerator at 2o-8oC. The molecular technologist came on Monday morning and collected the specimens that had been sent to the laboratory over the weekend. How should this sample be handled on Monday morning?

The purpose of endonucleases is to:

In inorganic DNA isolation or “salting out” procedures, in the presence of low pH and high salt concentrations, which intracellular component precipitates out of solution?

An outbreak of Salmonella has occurred in the community. Molecular-based assays need to be performed in order to determine if all the Salmonella isolated at hospital X are related to each other and part of the outbreak. Laboratory technologists have accumulated 10 different cultures growing Salmonella and suspect that there may be more isolated in the next few days. The supervisor has asked that the molecular-based assays be performed on as many of the isolates as possible. How should these organisms be handled until the molecular-based assays can be performed in about 3 days?

The temperature in a refrigerator that is used to store patient specimens and reagents should be checked how often?

Sequence-specific PCR using allele-specific primers and primers for an amplification control has been performed on DNA isolated from a patient requiring bone marrow transplantation. Analysis of the reaction by gel electrophoresis reveals the presence of two bands in the gel. How is this interpreted?

Which of the following controls defines the lower limit of detection of a molecular target?

A woman needs an organ transplant, and her husband volunteers to donate his organ. In pretransplantation testing, the woman’s serum was mixed in vitro with lymphocytes from her husband. After a few hours, complement and trypan blue were added to the culture well. The cells were observed under the microscope and determined to be viable. What is the interpretation of this assay?

The RNA polymerase holoenzyme consists of which of the following?