Question

Why do yoi suppose that such a central effector molecule in apoptosis was not found in many genetic screens for death genes?

Answer 1

Cell-based microarrays were first described by Ziauddin and Sabatini in 2001 as a powerful new approach for performing high throughput screens of gene function. An important application of cell-based microarrays is in screening for proteins that modulate gene networks. To this end, cells are grown over the surface of arrays of RNAi or expression reagents. Cells growing in the immediate vicinity of the arrayed reagents are transfected and the arrays can then be scanned for cells showing localised changes in function. Here we describe the construction of a large-scale microarray using expression plasmids containing human genes, its use in screening for genes that induce apoptosis when over-expressed and the characterisation of a number of these genes by following the transcriptional response of cell cultures during their induction of apoptosis.