Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA (GAPDH mRNA)

Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA (GAPDH mRNA) is the messenger RNA transcript encoding the enzyme glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. This transcript is widely expressed in human tissues and has traditionally been used as a housekeeping or reference sequence for normalization in quantitative PCR and other molecular biology assays due to its presumed stable expression. However, recent research shows that GAPDH mRNA levels vary significantly between tissue types, pathological conditions such as cancer, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases. High levels of GAPDH mRNA are associated with poor prognosis in several cancers[2]. The presence of numerous pseudogenes complicates its use as a specific assay target because these pseudogenes can be co-amplified during PCR-based detection[4]. While not itself considered a therapeutic target like an enzyme or receptor, it serves an important role as a biomarker for experimental controls and sometimes for disease prognosis.

Other names

GAPDH transcriptGAPDH gene expressionG3PDH mRNA