Attenuators

1. A set of attenuator oligonucleotides for a sample type that has a plurality of relatively high abundance target sequences (HATs), each HAT having a downstream region (DR) and an adjacent upstream region (UR),

wherein the set comprises for each HAT:

(a) a downstream detector oligo (DDO) comprising a P 1 primer sequence and a region complementary to the downstream region of the HAT target sequence (DR′), and

(b) an upstream detector oligo (UDO) comprising a region complementary to the upstream region of the HAT target sequence (UR′) and a P 2 ′ primer hybridization sequence,

wherein both the downstream detector and the upstream detector are capable of hybridizing simultaneously to the HAT target sequence under predetermined hybridization conditions, and;

(c) an attenuator oligo comprising a portion of the DR′ or the UR′ of sufficient length to specifically bind to a corresponding portion of the DR or UR of the HAT target sequence,

and further comprising a sequence X that is different from P 1 or a sequence Y that is different from P 2 ′.

2. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , further comprising a pool of primer oligos comprising a P 1 sequence and a pool of primer oligos comprising a P 2 sequence.

3. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a portion at least partially complementary to one of the DR or UR of a HAT, and further comprises a portion at least partially complementary to the other region of the HAT.

4. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a portion that is complementary to at least a portion of the DR of a HAT and another portion that is complementary to at least a portion of the UR of the HAT.

5. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises at least one mismatched base relative to the DR or UR of a HAT.

6. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a portion partially complementary to the DR of a HAT, and comprises 1, 2, or 3 mismatched bases at any of the positions at the 3′ end or at 1 or 2 positions from the 3′ end.

7. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a portion partially complementary to the UR of a HAT, and comprises 1, 2, or 3 mismatched bases at any of the positions at the 5′ end or at 1 or 2 positions from the 5′ end.

8. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein, under the hybridization conditions in (b), the sequence X does not specifically bind to the P 1 sequence or its complement; or the sequence Y does not specifically bind to the P 2 sequence or its complement.

9. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a nonamplifiable segment comprising a reverse complementary sequence.

10. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein the DR of a HAT is connected to the UR of the HAT by a flexible linker.

11. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator is phosphorylated.

12. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator is not phosphorylated.

13. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator further comprises a portion that is complementary to a region adjacent to the DR or UR of a HAT.

14. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein the DR and UR of a HAT are separated by one or more nucleotides, and an attenuator has a portion that is complementary to the one or more nucleotides.

15. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a selectively cleavable site.

16. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator further comprises a nonextendable or nonligatable blocking group.

17. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator is detectably labeled.

18. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein an attenuator comprises a barcode sequence.

19. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 18 , wherein the barcode sequence is specific to a HAT.

20. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein a HAT comprises a sequence partially encoding a product selected from the group consisting of cytochrome c, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ribosomal protein L7 (RPL7), ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6), snRNA RNUs, phosphoglycerokinase (PGK), tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein zeta (YWHAZ), beta-actin, and beta-tubulin.

21. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 1 , wherein the attenuator comprises a portion of the DR′ and a portion of the UR′.

22. The set of attenuator oligonucleotides of claim 9 , wherein the reverse complementary sequence forms a hairpin loop under the hybridization conditions of (b).