Developmental Biology: An Array of New Possibilities
Adnan Ali* and Michael J. Crawford*
Dept. Biological Sciences, University of Windsor,401 Sunset, Windsor,
Ontario, N9B 3P4, CANADA
Microarrays offer biologists comprehensive and powerful tools to analyze the involvement of genes in developmental processes at an unprecedented scale. Microarrays which employ defined sequences will permit us to elucidate genetic relationships and responses, while those which employ undefined DNA sequences (ESTs, cDNA or genomic libraries) will help us to discover new genes, relate them to documented gene networks, and to examine the way in which genes (and the process that they themselves control) are regulated. With access to broad new avenues of research come strategic and logistical headaches, most of which are embodied in the reams of data that are created over the course of an experiment. The solutions to these problems have provided interesting computational tools which will allow us to compile huge data sets and to construct a genome-wide view of development. We are on the threshold of a new vista of possibilities where we might consider in comprehensive and yet specific detail, for example, the degree to which diverse organisms utilize similar genetic networks to achieve similar ends.
Copyright 2002 Elsevier