Genome-wide expression analysis in Corynebacterium glutamicum using DNA microarrays

DNA microarray technology has become an important research tool for microbiology and biotechnology as it allows for comprehensive DNA and RNA analyses to characterize genetic diversity and gene expression in a genome-wide manner. DNA microarrays have been applied extensively to study the biology of many bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but only recently have they been used for the related high-GC Gram-positive Corynebacterium glutamicum, which is widely used for biotechnological amino acid production. Besides the design and generation of microarrays as well as their use in hybridization experiments and subsequent data analysis, recent applications of DNA microarray technology in C. glutamicum including the characterization of ribose-specific gene expression and the valine stress response will be described. Emerging perspectives of functional genomics to enlarge our insight into fundamental biology of C. glutamicum and their impact on applied biotechnology will be discussed.