INEXPENSIVE HAND-HELD DEVICE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIGH-DENSITY NUCLEIC-ACID ARRAYS

We report an easy-to-use, 384-pin handheld arraying and replicating de vice (ARD) for constructing high-density replicas of nucleic acids and E. coli transformants. We have modified an existing 384-pin tool to i nclude a novel guide system to ensure vertical pin movement and enhanc e reproducibility. An asymmetric rectangular multiplexing frame is des igned to increase the array density to 1536 riots on a standard microp late-size nylon membrane and to reduce the time and effort involved in producing array replicas. Our initial studies used the ARD to constru ct 1536-dot arrays of ovarian cDNA clones. We have hybridized these ar rays with P-32-labeled probes, which resulted in distinctive signals f or either visual interpretation or semiautomatic spot detection and si gnal integration.