M. Hertzberg et al., cDNA microarray analysis of small plant tissue samples using a cDNA tag target amplification protocol, PLANT J, 25(5), 2001, pp. 585-591
Microarray technology is becoming an important comprehensive tool to study
gene expression in plants. However, the use of this technology is limited b
y the large amount of sample tissue needed for microarray analysis. General
ly, 50-200 mug of total RNA and 1-2 mug of mRNA is required for each hybrid
isation, which is equivalent to 50-100 mg of plant tissue. This requirement
for large amounts of starting material severely constrains the use of micr
oarrays for transcript profiling in specific tissues and cell types during
plant development. Here we report on a robust and reliable target amplifica
tion method that enables transcript profiling from sub-mg amounts of plant
tissue. Using 0.1 mug of total RNA we show that twofold expression differen
ces are possible to distinguish with 99% confidence. We also demonstrate th
e application of this method in an analysis of secondary phloem development
in hybrid aspen using defined tissue sections, corresponding to 2-4 cell l
ayers with a fresh weight of similar to0.5 mg.