qPCRtools: An R package for qPCR data processing and visualization

Xiang Li; Yingmin Wang; Jingyu Li; Xinyue Mei; Yixiang Liu; Huichuan Huang

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.1002704

qPCRtools: An R package for qPCR data processing and visualization

Front Genet. 2022 Sep 13:13:1002704. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1002704. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiang Li^{1

2}, Yingmin Wang^{1

2}, Jingyu Li^{1

2}, Xinyue Mei^{1

2}, Yixiang Liu^{1

2}, Huichuan Huang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan, Yunnan Agri-cultural University, Kunming, China.
² Key Laboratory for Agro-Biodiversity and Pest Control of Ministry of Education, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China.

Abstract

In biological research, qPCR is a technique that is frequently used to measure gene expression levels. The calculation of gene amplification efficiency is a critical step in the processing of qPCR data since it helps to decide which method to employ to compute gene expression levels. Here, we introduce the R package qPCRtools, which enables users to analyze the efficiency of gene amplification. Additionally, this software can determine gene expression levels using one of three approaches: the conventional curve-based method, the 2^-ΔΔCt method, and the SATQPCR method. The qPCRtools package produces a table with the statistical data of each method as well as a figure with a box or bar plot illustrating the results. The R package qPCRtools is freely available at CRAN (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=qPCRtools) or GitHub (https://github.com/lixiang117423/qPCRtools/tree/main/CRAN/qPCRtools).

Keywords: R package; bioinformatics; gene expression; qPCR; visualization.