APPLICATIONS OF MICROARRAYS TO BARLEY RESEARCH

Authors: MUEHLBAUER, GARY - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; Garvin, David; BODDU, JAYANAND - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; CHO, SEUNGHO - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: Barley Improvement Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2005
Publication Date: 4/1/2005
Citation: Muehlbauer, G.J., Garvin, D.F., Boddu, J., Cho, S. 2005. Applications of microarrays to barley research. 35th Barley Improvement Conference Proceedings. p. 20-23.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Barley1 Affymetrix GeneChip probe array was developed in 2003 and has provided a new resource for barley geneticists to examine gene expression in barley. This article summarizes the development of the GeneChip and several applications to barley research. Traditionally, gene expression studies have relied on methods and technologies such as northern blot analysis that examine one to a few genes at a time. In contrast, microarray technology provides the opportunity to examine expression of thousands of genes in parallel. Thus, microarray technology provides an increase of at least three orders of magnitude in the number of genes that can be assessed in a single experiment relative to more classical methods. There are multiple uses of microarray technology in barley including 1) examining gene expression during abiotic and biotic stresses; 2) high-throughput gene mapping; 3) determining gene expression during developmental processes such as those associated with malting; 4) evaluating tissue-specific gene expression; 5) assessing gene expression differences in defined mutant backgrounds; 6) gene cloning; and 7) marker saturation of genomic regions. Thus, the recent development of the Barley1 GeneChip probe array has provided the barley genetics community a new high-throughput tool to assess gene expression patterns.