In April 2004, the third mammalian complete genome sequence was published for rat (
Rattus norvegicus) by the Rat Genome Sequencing Project Consortium at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA (Gibbs et al,
Genome Sequence of the Brown Norway Rat Yields Insights into Mammalian Evolution, Nature 428: 493-521, 2004). It provides clearer understanding of exon and intron structure and alternative splicing of genes. The success of MWG Biotech's Rat 10K Array propelled Ocimum to design a whole genome rat array based on this data. The rat model is an indispensable tool in experimental medicine and drug development, and the availability of this array will accelerate corresponding research.
Specifications:Design is based on the newest Baylor College of Medicine genome sequence assembly 3.1 as published by Gibbs et al., in Nature 428: 493-521, 2004.
Public Data Source:ENSEMBL Rat Genome Release 22.3b.1.
Content cross-referenced with NCBI RefSeq.
Content includes unique data from MWG Biotech's large EST rat sequencing effort (Zimdahl
et al, A SNP Map of the Rat Genome Generated from cDNA Sequences, Science 303: 807, 2004).
Specificity:Each designed oligonucleotide goes through two rounds of cross-hybridization elimination using both BLAST and Smith-Waterman algorithms.
Design produces a global uniform distribution of GC content.
The former MWG Rat 10K Array remains a part of Ocimum's catalog array portfolio to allow scientists to complete any ongoing research project. However, a complete new annotation of the Rat 10K content guarantees to get most out of the array experiment.
ExpressArt® technology was developed at Artus GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. After the PCR branch of Artus GmbH was acquired by Qiagen AG, ExpressArt® branch with all its personnel and know-how was transferred to AmpTec GmbH (founded in June 2005).
ExpressArt® is a unique linear mRNA amplification technology that has overcome several limitations of competing technologies. Benefits offered are:
- Absence of large primer-derived amplification artefacts
- Ease of use in studies comprising small and large RNA samples
Amplification of picogram amounts of total RNA
Recent additions allow specific mRNA amplification (avoiding rRNAs) in challenging samples of total RNA, i.e., in degraded RNAs (independent of Poly-A) and bacterial RNAs (a 3'-tag is not required).
Ocimum Biosolutions now distributes various ExpressArt® kits, thus enabling many new applications starting with limited amount of RNA samples or RNA samples of challenging qualities. This starts with expression profiling in array technologies and also includes qPCR and generation of cDNA libraries. By design, the kits are suitable for high throughput automation.
Unique Advantages:- Successfully processes minimal amounts of input RNA, starting in the low picogram range.
- Comparable and unbiased microarray data from one, two, or even three amplification rounds.
- There is no need to pre-determine input RNA amounts.
- Dedicated kits for degraded and bacterial RNA samples not relying on poly-A.
- Add-ons available for aminoallyl coupling of dyes and to generate archive templates.
To learn more about ExpressArt® mRNA amplification kits
Click here
