Fig. 2.

Real-time analyses of RCR reactions demonstrating strand-specific amplification during three generations of C2CA. One, two, and three generations (C2CA¹, C2CA², and C2CA³, respectively) of C2CA were monitored in real-time in separate reaction tubes by using the molecular beacons mbFD⁺ (red), specific for the (–) strand, and mbFD^– (blue), specific for the (+) strand, respectively. The amount of start circles is indicated in the upper left corner in each graph. The hair-pin shaped molecular beacon probes report the presence of RCR products by emitting fluorescence upon hybridization. The fluorescence reaches a plateau when all molecular beacons have hybridized to the RCR product. The maximum slope of the accumulating fluorescence in the graph reflects the amount of circles templating the RCR.