Gene Array Analyzer: alternative usage of gene arrays to study alternative splicing events.

Exon arrays are regularly used to analyze differential splicing events. GeneChip Gene 1.0 ST Arrays (gene arrays) manufactured by Affymetrix, Inc. are primarily used to determine expression levels of transcripts, although their basic design is rather similar to GeneChip Exon 1.0 ST Arrays (exon arrays). Here, we show that the newly developed Gene Array Analyzer (GAA), which evolved from our previously published Exon Array Analyzer (EAA), enables economic and user-friendly analysis of alternative splicing events using gene arrays. To demonstrate the applicability of GAA, we profiled alternative splicing events during embryonic heart development. In addition, we found that numerous developmental splicing events are also activated under pathological conditions. We reason that the usage of GAA considerably expands the analysis of gene expression based on gene arrays and supplies an additional level of information without further costs and with only little effort.