RNA fingerprinting and differential display using arbitrarily primed PCR.

RNA fingerprinting by arbitrarily primed PCR can be used to detect and clone transcripts that are differentially expressed between cells that have been subject to different environments or developmental programs. The method also allows an estimate of the number of genes that are differentially expressed under various circumstances. When many experimental treatments are compared in parallel, intersecting regulatory pathways are reflected in genes that are perturbed by more than one treatment.