Cap analysis of gene expression

Cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) is a gene expression technique used in molecular biology to produce a snapshot of the 5′ end of the messenger RNA population in a biological sample (the transcriptome). The small fragments (historically 27 nucleotides long, but now limited only by sequencing technologies) from the very beginnings of mRNAs (5' ends of capped transcripts) are extracted, reverse-transcribed to cDNA, PCR amplified (if needed) and sequenced.

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