cDNA-SCoT: A novel rapid method for analysis of gene differential expression in sugarcane and other plants

Gene expression analysis is extremely important in the field of agriculture. The correct analysis could provide theoretical and scientific references for wide-range genetic improvements in plants to increase crop production quality and quantity. To correctly analyze gene expressions, a high-performing, effective, and inexpensive gene expression method is needed. Throughout all previous relevant researches, many methods were created for the detection and analysis of differentially-expressed genes in plants. Although these methods are technologically advanced, each marker system has its own disadvantages when used for gene expression analysis. All these methods have been created in various laboratories for different application purposes. In addition, each method is highly influential to different crop species, technical expertise, available equipments, available research funding, etc. which are not always available. So, these methods are unsuitable for a pure gene expression analysis. To simplify the gene expression analysis without the outside influences of crop species differentiation, different technical skills and equipments, and limited funding, we developed a new method for gene differential expression in plants based on the start codon targeted polymorphism (SCoT) DNA Marker technique, called cDNA-SCoT. The cDNA-SCoT is advantageous compared to all other existing methods because it is relatively more efficient, faster, cheaper, simpler to operate, and the results can be easily reproduced. This method also does not require expensive machineries or complicated chemical mixtures to operate. Consequently, this newly created method was successfully tested on sugarcane genes through this study. We predict that, due to its beneficial qualities in differential gene analysis in comparison to other methods, the cDNA-SCoT would play a more important role in studying differentially expressed genes, finding new genes, investigating the molecular mechanism of resistance, and more.