Quantitative cell array screening to identify regulators of gene expression

Abstract

In the last decade or so, advances in genome-scale technologies have allowed systematic and detailed analysis of gene function. The experimental accessibility of budding yeast makes it a test-bed for technology development and application of new functional genomic tools and resources that pave the way for comparable efforts in higher eukaryotes. In this article, we review advances in reporter screening technology to discover trans-acting regulators of promoters (or cis-elements) of interest in the context of a novel functional genomics approach called Reporter Synthetic Genetic Array (R-SGA) analysis.We anticipate that this methodology will enable researchers to collect quantitative data on hundreds of gene expression pathways in an effort to better understand transcriptional regulatory networks. © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.