Studies gene
expression by
detection of RNA in
a sample
Useful to observe cellular control over structure and
function by determining gene expression levels in
abnormal (e.g. differentiation, morphogenesis) and
diseased conditions
Electrophoresis
Separates RNA
samples by size
Detection with a
hybridisation probe
Probe is a section of nucleotides
complementary to part of (or the
entirety of) the target sequence
Time consuming
and challenging
Microarrays
Most common
method of
transcriptomics
Carries out many
genetic tests at
the same time, for
thousands of
genes in parallel
mRNA molecules
for each gene of
interest are collected
for both the 'normal'
and 'abnormal' cell
Hybridisation probes
for the genes of
interest are placed
onto a microarray slide
cDNA molecules
are then generated
from the mRNA
Each sample is
labelled with
fluorescently
labelled nucleotides
Normal and abnormal cDNA
molecules are labelled with
different colours
Labelled cDNA
molecules hybridise to
their complementary
probes on the slide,
leaving their
fluorescent tag
A scanner can be
used to measure
fluorescence
intensity for each
spot on the slide
If a particular gene is
very active, it produces
more mRNA, and
therefore more cDNA
This means more
molecules hybridise to the
slide, generating a very
bright fluorescent spot
Less active genes
produce a dimmer
fluorescent spot
Inactive genes
produce no mRNA, so
there is fluorescence
Example
Study of tumour cells
Tumour cells are
labelled with a red dye,
and normal cells are
labelled with a green dye
When co-hybridising
samples together, they
compete to bind to the
complementary probe
As a result, a red spot means
that the gene is more
expressed in cancer cells
(up-regulated in cancer), and a
green spot means that it is
more expressed in normal cells
(down-regulated in cancer)
and a yellow spot means that
the gene is equally expressed
in normal and cancer cells
Duplication of
the nucleotide
sequences in
the genome is a
real problem
37% of genes are highly
conserved, with a further
10% being partially
conserved, meaning that a
labelled target sequence
could hybridise to different
probes
Better solutions are
gene-specific tags, or using
a GeneChip to quickly
determine which genes are
present in a sample