SERIAL ANALYSIS OF GENE-EXPRESSION

The characteristics of an organism are determined by the genes express ed within it. A method was developed, called serial analysis of gene e xpression (SAGE), that allows the quantitative and simultaneous analys is of a large number of transcripts. To demonstrate this strategy, sho rt diagnostic sequence tags were isolated from pancreas, concatenated, and cloned. Manual sequencing of 1000 tags revealed a gene expression pattern characteristic of pancreatic function. New pancreatic transcr ipts corresponding to novel tags were identified. SAGE should provide a broadly applicable means for the quantitative cataloging and compari son of expressed genes in a variety of normal, developmental, and dise ase states.