The unique advantages of 70mers:
as sensitive
as cDNA with the specificity of oligos.
QIAGEN Operon offers a variety of microarray products based on our revolutionary ”°longmer”± concept. Microarray products from QIAGEN Operon include Array-Ready Oligo Sets and customizable OPTs.
Cross-hybridization among homologous DNA sequences when measuring gene expression is a long-standing problem with microarrays. Use of DNA microarrays printed with PCR products may cause difficulty distinguishing expression patterns for highly homologous genes due to homology or overlap of the PCR products. In addition, compared to DNA synthesis, PCR can be a time-consuming, expensive, and problematic process for generating a full complement of DNA probes for microarray production. In contrast, synthetic DNA production is a robust and cost-effective process for generating DNA probes for analysis of gene expression.
At QIAGEN Operon , we have addressed many of these limitations by designing 70mer oligonucleotides for our array products. QIAGEN Operon compared the sensitivity of 35, 50, 70, and 90mers for detecting highly expressed genes as well as genes expressed at moderate or low levels. We found that 70mers provide unique advantages, having the sensitivity of cDNA and the specificity of oligos (see figure "Unique Advantages of 70mers").
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The unique advantages of 70mers:
as sensitive |
All of our Array-Ready Oligo Sets and OPTs are hybridization temperature normalized and are designed to hybridize within 750 bases of the 3' end of each gene or open reading frame (ORF). Each oligo has been sequence optimized using BLAST against a large data set to minimize cross-hybridization and provide excellent sensitivity and specificity.
Array-Ready Oligo Sets are currently available for several genomes, including human, mouse, malaria, M. tuberculosis, arabidopsis, and yeast, and will soon be available for drosophila, and C. elegans. These oligo sets consist of optimized 70mer oligonucleotides that can be used as probes for thousands of specific genes and ORFs in the genome. As additional sequence information becomes available, upgrades to our oligo sets will be added to the product line.
Custom array
products: Our highly trained technical support specialists are ready to
assist you to design your own arrays. Array-optimized longmers (OPTs) can be
designed by our bioinformatics team to meet specific array requirements. OPTs
are especially suited for customers who wish to study specific genes or ORFs
that are not available in QIAGEN Operon Array-Ready Oligo Sets.
Other microarray products: QIAGEN Operon offers a variety of other microarray products. Random Cy3-labeled 9mers can be used to perform quality-control hybridizations after printing arrays. For many of our Array-Ready Oligo Sets, we offer sample plates with a selection of oligos from the set. In addition, complementary sequences for a select number of optimized 70mers are available. Visit our web site at www.operon.com for the latest updated product information.