Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Opinion
  • Published:

Sharing gene expression data: an array of options

Abstract

Sharing of microarray data has many advantages for the scientific and biomedical community, and should be advocated by neuroscience journals. The goals of sharing are manifold, and include improving analysis and confidence in results, and facilitating global comparisons between experiments, while at the same time, not penalizing those who share. The sharing of microarray data poses unique challenges relative to more generic data such as DNA sequences. These challenges are surmountable, and various sharing formats are possible. Centralized non-commercial databases are being developed to facilitate this process.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Experimental stages in a typical cDNA microarray experiment.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brown, P. O. & Botstein, D. Exploring the new world of the genome with DNA microarrays. Nature Genet. 21, 33–37 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Geschwind, D. H. Mice, microarrays, and the genetic diversity of the brain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 10676–10678 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lipshutz, R. J., Fodor, S. P., Gingeras, T. R. & Lockhart, D. J. High density synthetic oligonucleotide arrays. Nature Genet. 21, 20–24 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chen, J. J. et al. Profiling expression patterns and isolating differentially expressed genes by cDNA microarray system with colorimetry detection. Genomics 51, 313–324 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chiang, L. W. et al. An orchestrated gene expression component of neuronal programmed cell death revealed by cDNA array analysis. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 2814–2819 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Tanaka, T. S. et al. Genome-wide expression profiling of mid-gestation placenta and embryo using a 15,000 mouse developmental cDNA microarray. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 9127–9132 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Collins, F. S. & Mansoura, M. K. The Human Genome Project. Cancer 91, 221–225 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. DeRisi, J. et al. Use of a cDNA microarray to analyse gene expression patterns in human cancer. Nature Genet. 14, 457–460 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Schena, M. et al. Parallel human genome analysis: microarray-based expression monitoring of 1000 genes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 93, 10614–10619 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. DeRisi, J. L., Iyer, V. R. & Brown, P. O. Exploring the metabolic and genetic control of gene expression on a genomic scale. Science 278, 680–686 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Velculescu, V. E., Zhang, L., Vogelstein, B. & Kinzler, K. W. Serial analysis of gene expression. Science 270, 484–487 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Velculescu, V. E., Vogelstein, B. & Kinzler, K. W. Analysing uncharted transcriptomes with SAGE. Trends Genet. 16, 423–425 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Luo, Z. & Geschwind, D. H. Microarray applications in neuroscience. Neurobiol. Dis. 8, 183–193 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Stoeckert, C. et al. A relational schema for both array-based and SAGE gene expression experiments. Bioinformatics 17, 300–308 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Welford, S. M. et al. Detection of differentially expressed genes in primary tumor tissues using representational differences analysis coupled to microarray hybridization. Nucleic Acids Res. 26, 3059–3065 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Geschwind, D. H. et al. A genetic analysis of neural progenitor differentiation. Neuron 29, 325–339 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Luo, L. et al. Gene expression profiles of laser-captured adjacent neuronal subtypes. Nature Med. 5, 117–122 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Sandberg, R. et al. Regional and strain-specific gene expression mapping in the adult mouse brain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 11038–11043 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Lee, M. L., Kuo, F. C., Whitmore, G. A. & Sklar, J. Importance of replication in microarray gene expression studies: statistical methods and evidence from repetitive cDNA hybridizations. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 9834–9839 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Brazma, A., Robinson, A., Cameron, G. & Ashburner, M. One-stop shop for microarray data. Nature 403, 699–700 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Mirnics, K., Middleton, F. A., Marquez, A., Lewis, D. A. & Levitt, P. Molecular characterization of schizophrenia viewed by microarray analysis of gene expression in prefrontal cortex. Neuron 28, 53–67 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Eberwine, J. Amplification of mRNA populations using aRNA generated from immobilized oligo(dT)-T7 primed cDNA. Biotechniques 20, 584–591 (1996).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my colleagues Chiara Sabatti and Harley Kornblum, and to members of the Geschwind Laboratory, especially Joseph Dougherty, for their comments on the manuscript and helpful discussions. I thank Bonita Porch for her editorial assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Related links

Related links

FURTHER INFORMATION

Autism Genetic Resource Exchange

Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment

Microarray Gene Expression Database Group

Gene Expression Omnibus

ArrayExpress

GeneX

Y. Kagami

Draft recommendations of the MGED

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Geschwind, D. Sharing gene expression data: an array of options. Nat Rev Neurosci 2, 435–438 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35077576

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35077576

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing