Skip to main content
  • Research news
  • Published:

Second-generation microarrays

Current microarray analysis uses 'chips' containing either 25-residue oligonucleotides synthesized by photolithography or cDNAs placed by robotic spotting. In the April Nature Biotechnology, Hughes et al. describe a microarray technique that exploits an ink-jet printing method and standard phosphoramidite chemistry (Nature Biotechnology 2001, 19:342-347). The ink-jet synthesizer can deliver 25,000 phosphoramidite-containing microdroplets to a 25 x 75 mm glass slide. Hughes et al. examined a large range of parameters to define conditions for optimized specificity and sensitivity. They found that 60-mer oligonucleotides hybridized at 30-32% formamide gave the best results. The absolute detection limit was approximately 0.1 copies per cell equivalent. The ink-jet arrays were as effective as spotted cDNA microarrays. Moreover, Hughes et al. report that single carefully chosen 60-mer oligonucleotides can be preferable to arrays containing multiple oligonucleotides or cDNAs as they offer maximal specificity. The ink-jet technology provides a very flexible microarray system that can be experimentally optimized to detect low abundance mRNAs and spliced variants.

References

  1. Expression monitoring by hybridization to high-density oligonucleotide arrays.

  2. Quantitative monitoring of gene expression patterns with a complementary DNA microarray.

  3. Nature Biotechnology, [http://biotech.nature.com]

  4. Experimental annotation of the human genome using microarray technology.

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Weitzman, J.B. Second-generation microarrays. Genome Biol 2, spotlight-20010411-01 (2001). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20010411-01

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/gb-spotlight-20010411-01

Keywords