Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA)

Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA) is an RNA transcription-mediated amplification system using two enzymes to drive the reaction: RNA polymerase and reverse transcriptase. TMA is isothermal; the entire reaction is performed at the same temperature in a water bath or heat block. This is in contrast to other amplification reactions such as PCR that require a thermal cycler instrument to rapidly change the temperature to drive reaction.

TMA can amplify either DNA or RNA, and produces RNA amplicon, in contrast to most other nucleic acid amplification methods that only produce DNA. TMA has very rapid kinetics, resulting in a billion-fold amplification with 15-60 minutes. TMA can be combined with HPA for endpoint detection or with molecular torches for real-time detection. There are no wash steps, and no amplicon is ever transferred out of the tube, which simplifies the procedure and reduces the potential for contamination.

TMA Advantages:

• Multiple targets can be amplified
• Can be qualitative or quantitative
• No transfers, no wash steps
• Real time detection with molecular torches