1 µl of first-strand cDNA was used as a template for the PCR reaction with specific primers for TG cDNA as previously described (Tallini et al, 1998) . Each reaction mixture consisted of 1 µl of cDNA, 0.5 µM of each primer, 1 µl of 10 × Ex Taq Buffer, 0.8 µl of 2.5 mM dNTP mix, 0.5 U of Ex Taq polymerase, and nucleasefree water to a final volume of 10 µl. 10 × Ex Taq Buffer, dNTP mix, and Ex Taq polymerase were obtained from Takara. The reaction mixture was then subjected to 35 cycles of denaturation (94˚C, 1 min), annealing (55˚C, 1 min) and extension (72˚C, 1 min). After PCR amplification, the reaction mixture was run on a 2% SeaKem GTG agarose gel (Takara). The gel was then stained with ethidium bromide. Samples without reverse transcription were used as negative controls.