Improved method for generating microarray probes using submicrogram amounts of total RNA

The ability to identify disease-associated genes using microarray technology is dependent on isolating high-quality total RNA from the diseased tissue under study. However, it is not always possible to obtain large amounts of affected tissue from patients and therefore the quality and yield of RNA may be compromised. This protocol described a procedure for generating superior microarray probes by amplifying RNA sequences via successive rounds of in vitro transcription (IVT) reactions. This improved procedure utilizes a 9-mer primer to generate the IVT template, which is able to recapitulate the size ditribution of the original isolated RNA sample.