Copy Standard Controls

Copy standards are control template preparations, in which tail DNA is spiked with known amounts of transgene DNA to create single copy and multiple copy standards. These are used to verify that your Southern blot or PCR reaction is sensitive enough to detect the integration of a single copy of a transgene. This will ensure that your screen for transgenic founders will not miss any transgenic lines of mice. The GTTF requires that you include and demonstrate use of these controls in order to obtain the guarantee of 3 founders per construct.
Copy standards are also useful to demonstrate that your conditions are sufficiently sensitive to detect deletion of a single allele of a gene, as in gene targeting experiments.
Calculations for Southern blot
Calculations for PCR
Example of use of copy standards in screen to detect transgenic mice