Microarray Analysis Using RNA Arbitrarily Primed PCR

RNA arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (RAP-PCR) has been used extensively to identify differentially regulated genes (1 –6 ). The RAP-PCR method begins with conversion of RNA into cDNA, followed by arbitrarily primed PCR. The technique uses arbitrarily primed PCR (7 –11 ) to amplify cDNA stretches lying between sequences that, by chance, match arbitrarily chosen oligonucleotide primers well enough to initiate primer extension. In earlier applications of the method, the complex mixture of products was resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), yielding highly reproducible fingerprints characteristic of the RNA source. Differences between fingerprints resulting from differentially expressed genes were verified by Northern blot analysis or reverse transcription (RT)-PCR.