DNA microarrays

Microarray technology provides new analytical devices that allow the parallel and simultaneous detection of several thousands of probes within one sample. Microarrays, sometimes called DNA chips, are widely used in gene-expression analysis, genotyping of individuals, analysis of point mutations and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) as well as other genomic or transcriptomic variations. In this chapter we give a survey of common microarray manufacturing, the selection of support material, immobilisation and hybridisation and the detection with labelled complementary strands. However, DNA arrays may also serve as the basis for more complex analysis based on the action of enzymes on the immobilized templates. This property gives DNA microarrays the potential for being the template for whole PCR and transcription experiments with high parallelism, as will be discussed in the last section of this chapter.