ИСТИНА

qRT-PCR is a generally acknowledged method for gene expression analysis due to its precision and reproducibility. However, it is well known that the accuracy of qRT-PCR data varies greatly depending on the experimental design and data analysis. Recently, a set of guidelines has been proposed that aims to improve the reliability of qRT-PCR. However, there are additional factors that have not been taken into consideration in these guidelines that can seriously affect the data obtained using this method. We report the influence that object morphology can have on qRT-PCR data. We have used a number of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with altered floral morphology as models for this study. These mutants have been well characterized (including in terms of gene expression levels and patterns) by other techniques. This allows us to compare the results from the qRT-PCR with the results inferred from other methods. In this study, we demonstrate that the comparison of gene expression levels in objects that differ greatly in their morphology can lead to erroneous results.