MicroSAGE is highly representative and reproducible but reveals major differences in gene expression among samples obtained from similar tissues.

作者信息

Blackshaw Seth, Kuo Winston P, Park Peter J, Tsujikawa Motokazu, Gunnersen Jenny M, Scott Hamish S, Boon Wee-Ming, Tan Seong-Seng, Cepko Constance L

机构信息

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

出版信息

Genome Biol. 2003;4(3):R17. doi: 10.1186/gb-2003-4-3-r17. Epub 2003 Feb 18.

BACKGROUND

Serial analysis of gene expression using small amounts of starting material (microSAGE) has not yet been conclusively shown to be representative, reproducible or accurate.

RESULTS

We show that microSAGE is highly representative, reproducible and accurate, but that pronounced differences in gene expression are seen between tissue samples taken from different individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

MicroSAGE is a reliable method of comprehensively profiling differences in gene expression among samples, but care should be taken in generalizing results obtained from libraries constructed from tissue obtained from different individuals and/or processed or stored differently.