Anyone working with gene expression, transcriptional regulation or cDNA cloning will undoubtedly have used reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) at some point in their workflow.

RT-PCR is usually carried out as a two-step process: first, total or mRNA-enriched RNA is converted to complementary DNA (cDNA) by a reverse transcriptase (RT) enzyme. The cDNA is then used as a template for PCR.

Modern genomics seems to be undergoing a shift from using short-read technologies to sequence large numbers of genomes with the aim of detecting SNPs, to sequencing fewer genomes using long-read technologies that can resolve more complex events, e.g., structural rearrangements, copy number variations, and repeat expansions.