Those who foresaw this outcome recognized the enormous potential benefits for biology and medicine and the need for new methods to extract the biological meaning of the DNA sequence. Professor Southern, among others set about developing them. DNA microarrays Oligonucleotides arrayed on a solid surface, are particularly well adapted to analyzing gene sequence variation and levels of activity so called expression. The arrays comprise large numbers of spots of oligonucleotides on a solid surface. Within each spot there are many millions of oligonucleotides, each having the same known sequence and tethered to the surface.
Different spots have different base sequences.
Each spot is known as a probe. The probes work in the same way as the structure of the DNA molecule. Each oligonucleotide probe has the potential to form one half of a DNA double helix, or duplex for short. The other half of the duplex will be formed from the DNA or RNA that we want to know something about, the target. This simple test can be used in a variety of ways and is the basis of all the technologies, which OGT use.