DESCRIPTION

Rapid-Scan Gene Expression Panels are assembled from 24 frequently studied human tissues, 12 human brain parts, 24 human breast cancer (normal/tumor) samples, 24 major mouse tissues, 48 mouse brain parts and stages, and 12 Drosophila tissues and stages. To avoid detection of individual differences in gene expression, tissues are pooled from multiple individuals whenever possible.

Total RNA was isolated and subjected to oligo (dT) selection and the recovered poly A+ RNA examined by Northern blot hybridization to confirm RNA integrity. Using oligo (dT) primers and MMLV reverse transcriptase, first-strand cDNA was then synthesized from the poly A+ RNA and individual cDNAs confirmed to be free of genomic DNA contamination and to contain complete reverse transcripts of selected rare and long mRNAs. The first-strand cDNAs from each tissue were then subjected to normalization to ensure an equivalent concentration of a control reverse transcript. Each cDNA was diluted in water to a series of four concentrations (labeled 1000x, 100x, 10x and 1x), with the lowest concentration (1x) being approximately 1 pg. The diluted cDNAs were subsequently arrayed in a 48- or 96-well PCR plate.

Six Rapid-Scan Gene Expression Panels are currently available:

• 24 human tissues
• 12 human brain parts
• 24 human breast cancer samples
• 24 major mouse tissues
• 48 mouse brain parts and stages
• 12 Drosophila tissues and stages