What is DNA microarray

DNA microarray is an arrayed series of spotted short DNA sequences (oligonucleotides) that is used to detect DNA or RNA (the latter usually as a cDNA after reverse transcription) in samples. Most commonly,it is used for measuring changes in

• gene expression levels (gene expression profiling, based on RNA detection) - expression arrays
• detection of genome structural changes (SNPs-single nucleotide polymorphisms or gene copy number changes) - arrayCGH
• DNA microarray technology is also succesfully used for the determination of protein binding sites on the genome (ChIP-on-chip), detection of alternative splicing (exon junction arrays) or for the precise detection of unknown and unpredicted transcripts or alternative splice forms (tiling arrays)