A bioinformatics strategy to rapidly characterize cDNA libraries

Abstract

Motivation: Complementary DNA libraries can define the genetic constituents of specific cells and/or tissues. Their sequencing will illuminate the transcriptome but it is a monumental task requiring considerable resources. Results: We have employed a computational search in conjunction with a microarray-based strategy to alleviate the impediments of deriving a consensus of records that describe testis gene expression. This strategy identified 5681 unique testes-expressed genes of which 3265 were previously portrayed in the UniGene database. Interestingly, a total of 2416 novel testes-expressed genes were identified. This clearly demonstrates that microarrays can be used to rapidly discover a large number of new transcripts.