In order to determine the relative specificity of the hybridization of complex nucleic acid targets to oligonucleotide probes complementary to single base substitutions, insertions and deletions, we analyzed data generated from oligonucleotide microarray-based mutational analysis of the 9168 bp ATM coding region (30) . These studies used a pair of oligonucleotide microarrays (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA) containing over 250 000 probes (25 nt in length) specifically designed to screen the sense and antisense strands of the ATM coding region for genetic variation (27, 30) . Collectively, the ATM sense and antisense microarrays contain 55 008 probes complementary to all possible single base substitutions, 73 344 probes complementary to all possible one base insertions, and 18 336 probes complementary to all possible one base deletions and 18 336 probes complementary to all possible two base deletions in the ATM coding sequence (Figures 1 and 2 ). These microarrays have been used to screen for sequence variation in the ATM gene in over 100 DNA samples (30) . SNPs and gene inactivating mutations were uncovered by screening for localized losses of hybridization signal to PM probes complementary to every 25 nt segment of the ATM coding region (8, 25, 27, 30) . However, hybridization data from deletion and insertion probes were not relied upon in this analysis. Therefore, this data set provides a unique opportunity to examine the relative hybridization specificity of nucleic acid targets to each of these classes of mismatch probes.