Scientific Writing & Communication Flashcards

According to the MIQE guidelines, which term should be used to report the cycle at which fluorescence crosses the threshold in qPCR?

Answer: Cq (quantification cycle)

MIQE standardized the term Cq to replace instrument-specific terms such as Ct, Cp, and TOP.

A manuscript reports qPCR primers. In what orientation should the primer sequences be written?

Answer: 5' to 3'

Oligonucleotide sequences are conventionally written 5' to 3', which is the direction of synthesis.

Which statement correctly formats a human gene name compared with its protein product in a manuscript?

Answer: Gene TP53 in italics; protein p53 in regular (roman) type

HGNC convention italicizes human gene symbols, while protein names are written in roman type.

An analyst reports that a qPCR standard curve had a slope of -3.32. What amplification efficiency should be written in the results?

Answer: 100%

Efficiency = 10^(-1/slope) - 1, so a slope of -3.32 corresponds to about 100% efficiency.

Which error statistic should a figure legend use to show how much individual biological replicates vary?

Answer: Standard deviation (SD)

SD describes the spread of individual data points, while SEM describes how precisely the mean is estimated.

When writing a Methods section, which detail is MOST critical for another lab to reproduce a PCR assay?

Answer: Exact cycling conditions, reagent concentrations, and primer sequences

Reproducibility requires the full thermal profile, reagent concentrations, and oligonucleotide sequences.

In SI-compliant scientific writing, how should a denaturation temperature be written?

Answer: 95 °C

SI style puts a space between the number and the unit symbol, including °C.