Question

1. What is RNA seq and why are we using it rather than microarrays to measure changes in gene expression?

Answer 1

The order of ribonucleotides resent in an mRNA transcribes from a gene is known as its RNA sequence.

Microarray is a technique that is used to determine the level of expression of a gene.

Microarrays can only be used to determine the change in the level of expression of a gene or multiple genes. It cannot be used to determine any changes caused in the protein due to mutation in the DNA. RNA sequence, on the other hand, provides more information than the microarrays. It is highly specific, can detect very low expression levels and can also be used to distinguish isoforms of a gene. Microarrays depend on complementary sequence for determination and therefore redundancy and annotation of the probe can be problematic at times.