microarray

microarray

(mī′krō-ə-rā′)

n.

See DNA microarray.

microarray

An array of hundreds or thousands of spots containing specific oligonucleotides, cDNAs, proteins, peptides or other small molecules chemically attached to a substrate and organised in a grid on a glass or plastic slide, silicon chip, fibre-optic array or filter membrane. The microarray is bathed with probes to analyse gene expression by hybridisation, and it is used to detect changes in gene expression by comparing radioactively or chemically labelled cDNA prepared from the total mRNA of an experimental sample to that of a control sample. The relative intensity of the signal corresponding to each spot in the microarray reveals whether the expression of a particular gene is increased, decreased or unchanged.

microarray

A collection on a chip of thousands of biological probes such as DNA single-strand sequences, protein-detecting molecules, or any other biologically-identifying material, that can be used to survey a specimen for the presence of a target gene or substance. Binding to the target substance can be made to cause fluorescence to occur at the unique spot or spots on the array and the chip can then be read by a scanner and the result displayed on a computer monitor. See also DNA MICROARRAYS.

microarray

see DNA MICROARRAY.