Accuracy of a real-time polymerase-chain-reaction assay for a quantitative estimation of genetically modified sources in food products

The accuracy of a real-time polymerase-chain-reaction assay for genetically modified sources in food products was determined using two official test systems (kits) of primers and samples. These kits were recommended by the Federal Center of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance (Russian Ministry of Health) and the European Commission. We used the following three models of thermocyclers: iCycler iQ (Bio-Rad, United States), Rotor-Gene 3000 (Corbett Research, Australia), and DT-322 (DNA-Technology, Russia). Studies of samples that contained 1% genetically modified sources showed that the error of a quantitative assay for genetically modified sources in food products corresponds to 20–30% and does not depend on the kit type and the thermocycler model used.