Amine-modified random primers to label probes for DNA microarrays

DNA microarrays have been used to study the expression of thousands of genes at the same time in a variety of cells and tissues. The methods most commonly used to label probes for microarray studies require a minimum of 20 microg of total RNA or 2 microg of poly(A) RNA. This has made it difficult to study small and rare tissue samples. RNA amplification techniques and improved labeling methods have recently been described. These new procedures and reagents allow the use of less input RNA, but they are relatively time-consuming and expensive. Here we introduce a technique for preparing fluorescent probes that can be used to label as little as 1 microg of total RNA. The method is based on priming cDNA synthesis with random hexamer oligonucleotides, on the 5' ends of which are bases with free amino groups. These amine-modified primers are incorporated into the cDNA along with aminoallyl nucleotides, and fluorescent dyes are then chemically added to the free amines. The method is simple to execute, and amine-reactive dyes are considerably less expensive than dye-labeled bases or dendrimers.     

Optimized procedures for microarray analysis of histological specimens processed by laser capture microdissection

Analysis of cell-specific gene expression patterns using microarrays can reveal genes that are differentially expressed in diseased and normal tissue, as well as identify genes associated with specialized cellular functions. However, the cellular heterogeneity of the tissues precludes the resolution of expression profiles of specific cell types. While laser capture microdissection (LCM) can be used to obtain purified cell populations, the limited quantity of RNA isolated makes it necessary to perform an RNA amplification step prior to microarray analysis. The linearity and reproducibility of two RNA amplification protocols--the Baugh protocol (Baugh et al., 2001, Nucleic Acids Res 29:E29) and an in-house protocol have been assessed by conducting microarray analyses. Cy3-labeled total RNA from the colorectal cell line Colo-205 was compared to Cy5-labeled Colo-205 amplified RNA (aRNA) generated with each of the two protocols, using a human 10K cDNA array. The correlation of the gene intensities between amplified and total RNA measured in the two channels of each microarray was 0.72 and 0.61 for the Baugh protocol and the in-house protocol, respectively. The two protocols were further evaluated using aRNA obtained from normal colonic crypt cross-sections isolated via LCM. In both cases a microarray profile representative of colonic mucosa was obtained; statistically, the Baugh protocol was superior. Furthermore, a substantial overlap between highly expressed genes in the Colo-205 cells and colonic crypts underscores the reliability of the microarray analysis of LCM-derived material. Taken together, these results demonstrate that LCM-derived tissue from histological specimens can generate abundant amounts of high-quality aRNA for subsequent microarray analysis.     

Comparative analysis of amplified and nonamplified RNA for hybridization in cDNA microarray

Limiting amounts of RNA is a major issue in cDNA microarray, especially when one is dealing with fresh tissue samples. Here we describe a protocol based on template switch and T7 amplification that led to efficient and linear amplification of 1300x. Using a glass-array containing 368 genes printed in three or six replicas covering a wide range of expression levels and ratios, we determined quality and reproducibility of the data obtained from one nonamplified and two independently amplified RNAs (aRNA) derived from normal and tumor samples using replicas with dye exchange (dye-swap measurements). Overall, signal-to-noise ratio improved when we used aRNA (1.45-fold for channel 1 and 2.02-fold for channel 2), increasing by 6% the number of spots with meaningful data. Measurements arising from independent aRNA samples showed strong correlation among themselves (r(2)=0.962) and with those from the nonamplified sample (r(2)=0.975), indicating the reproducibility and fidelity of the amplification procedure. Measurement differences, i.e, spots with poor correlation between amplified and nonamplified measurements, did not show association with gene sequence, expression intensity, or expression ratio and can, therefore, be compensated with replication. In conclusion, aRNA can be used routinely in cDNA microarray analysis, leading to improved quality of data with high fidelity and reproducibility.     

Chum-RNA allows preparation of a high-quality cDNA library from a single-cell quantity of mRNA without PCR amplification

Linear RNA amplification using T7 RNA polymerase is useful in genome-wide analysis of gene expression using DNA microarrays, but exponential amplification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is still required for cDNA library preparation from single-cell quantities of RNA. We have designed a small RNA molecule called chum-RNA that has enabled us to prepare a single-cell cDNA library after four rounds of T7-based linear amplification, without using PCR amplification. Chum-RNA drove cDNA synthesis from only 0.49 femtograms of mRNA (730 mRNA molecules) as a substrate, a quantity that corresponds to a minor population of mRNA molecules in a single mammalian cell. Analysis of the independent cDNA clone of this library (6.6 × 10⁵ cfu) suggests that 30-fold RNA amplification occurred in each round of the amplification process. The size distribution and representation of mRNAs in the resulting one-cell cDNA library retained its similarity to that of the million-cell cDNA library. The use of chum-RNA might also facilitate reactions involving other DNA/RNA modifying enzymes whose Michaelis constant (K_m) values are around 1 mM, allowing them to be activated in the presence of only small quantities of substrate.     

Linear amplification of catalyzed reporter deposition technology on nylon membrane microarray

The application of microarray analysis to gene expression from limited tissue samples has not been very successful because of the poor signal qualityfrom the genes expressed at low levels. Here we discussed the use of catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD) technology to amplify signals from limited RNA samples on nylon membrane cDNA microarray. When the input RNA level was greater than 10 microg, the genes expressed at high levels did not amplify in proportion to those expressed at low levels. Compared to conventional colorimetric detection, the CARD method requires less than 10% of the total RNA used for amplification of signal displayed onto a nylon membrane cDNA microarray. Total RNA (5-10 microg), as one can extract from a limited amount of specimen, was determined to produce a linear correlation between the colorimetric detection and CARD methods. Beyond this range, it can cause a nonlinear amplification of highly expressed and low-abundance genes. These results suggest that when amplification is needed for any applications using the CARD method, including DNA microarray experiments, precaution has to be taken in the amount of RNA used to avoid skew amplification and thus misleading conclusions.     

aRNA-longSAGE: a new approach to generate SAGE libraries from microdissected cells

Large-scale gene expression analyses of microdissected primary tissue are still difficult because generally only a limited amount of mRNA can be obtained from microdissected cells. The introduction of the T7-based RNA amplification technique was an important step to reduce the amount of RNA needed for such analyses. This amplification technique produces amplified antisense RNA (aRNA), which so far has precluded its direct use for serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) library production. We describe a method, termed ‘aRNA-longSAGE’, which is the first to allow the direct use of aRNA for standard longSAGE library production. The aRNA-longSAGE protocol was validated by comparing two aRNA-longSAGE libraries with two Micro-longSAGE libraries that were generated from the same RNA preparations of two different cell lines. Using a conservative validation approach, we were able to verify 68% of the differentially expressed genes identified by aRNA-longSAGE. Furthermore, the identification rate of differentially expressed genes was roughly twice as high in our aRNA-longSAGE libraries as in the standard Micro-longSAGE libraries. Using our validated aRNA-longSAGE protocol, we were able to successfully generate longSAGE libraries from as little as 40 ng of total RNA isolated from 2000–3000 microdissected pancreatic ductal epithelial cells or cells from pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias.     

Advantages of mRNA amplification for microarray analysis

Expanding applications of cDNA microarrays such as fine needle aspiration biopsy and laser capture microdissection necessitate the ability to perform arrays with minute starting amounts of RNA. While methods for amplifying RNA have been advocated, the fidelity of array results using amplified material has not been fully validated. Here we demonstrate preserved fidelity in arrays using one or two rounds of mRNA amplification, validated by downstream real-time quantitative PCR. In addition, the quality of the array data was superior to that obtained using total RNA. Based on these results, we recommend routine mRNA amplification for all cDNA microarray-based analysis of gene expression.