A DNA
microarray for genome-wide gene expression analysis in fission yeast.
Yongtao Xue (1),
Stefan Haas (2), Laurent Brino (3), Arief Gusnanto, Mark Riemers (4), Driss
Talibi (3), Martin Vingron (2), Karl Ekwall (1), Anthony P H Wright (1)
(1) Natural Science Section, Södertörns University College, Box 4101, Huddinge,
S-141 04, Sweden (yongtao.xue@sh.se); (2) Department of Computational Molecular
Biology, Max-Plank Institute for Molecular Genetics, Ihnestrasse, D-14195
Berlin, Germany; (3) Eurogentec SA, Parc Scientifique du Sart Tilman, 4102
Seraing, Belgium; (4) Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Karolinska
Institute, S-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden
The complete genome sequence of fission yeast, Schizosacchaomyces pombe, opens the possibility for the development of post-genomic resources, such as DNA microarrays. For the first time it is possible to conduct genome-wide profiling experiments in a second yeast, thus allowing comparative analysis with the intensively studied but distantly related budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using genomic sequence information, made available by the Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK), we have constructed a DNA microarray for genome-wide gene expression analysis in fission yeast. The microarray represents >99% of the 5000 or so fission yeast genes that are annotated in the genomic sequence as well as a number of commonly used heterologous markers and various control sequences. We used the array to detect genes whose expression changes during a 2 hour temperature shift from 25 to 36 degrees, conditions widely used when studying temperature sensitive mutants. Obligingly, most genes do not change more than two-fold, supporting the widely held view that temperature-shift experiments specifically reveal phenotypes associated with temperature-sensitive mutants. However, we did identify a small group of genes for which the expression level was reproducibly changed by the temperature shift.