Table 1 Glossary of terms used in the present review
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Microarray | Microscope slide or chip with immobilized probes, usually cDNA, BAC, or oligo probes |
cDNA | Complementary DNA: a DNA that is complementary to a given RNA, which serves as a template for synthesis of the DNA in the presence of reverse transcriptase. When printed on microarray slides, they are usually 0.5–2 kilobases (kb) |
BAC | Bacterial artificial chromosome: a DNA construct, based on a fertility plasmid, used for transforming and cloning in bacteria, usually Escherichia coli. Its usual insert size is 150 kb, with a range from 100 to 300 kb |
Oligo | Oligonucleotide: a relatively short single-stranded nucleic acid chain, usually 20–80 base pairs |
Gene expression profiling | Global analysis of transcribed RNA in a tissue of interest. Usually based on the cohybridization of differentially labeled test and reference cDNAs to probes on microarray slides |
SAGE | Serial analysis of gene expression: generates a library of expressed genes by taking a raw count of sequence tags, each representing a transcript in the RNA population |
CGH | Comparative genomic hybridization: comparative hybridization of differentially labeled DNA of interest (e.g. tumor) and a reference (any genomic DNA) to normal metaphase chromosomes |
Array-CGH | Array-based CGH: comparative hybridization of differentially labeled DNA of interest (e.g. tumor) and a reference (any genomic DNA) to probes on a microarray slide |