NTC & Negtive control - (Nov/09/2010 )
Dear friends, Are "No template control" and "Negtive control" different ,if yes,what does "Negtive control" refer to ? Thanks
NTC = just that,no template. So no DNA or cDNA is present in the reaction. This shows that there is no contamination in your PCR reagents (ie. DNA contamination in mastermix)
Negative control is probably where you have template but you know that there will be no signal. The template you are including in your reaction will not show any amplicon. (shows your primers are working, etc.)
adding to biotechgirl's reply,
the negative control :
is a previously tested negative sample, in which it shows the internal control band but not the target band i.e the mutation/virus you are looking for.
so running your sample along with both the controls, in addition to the positive control will validate your run.
why using the negative control ?
to show if there is cross contamination in your run.