03-08-2013, 04:30 PM
Bacterial and gene identification using Phenotype Microarray (PHENOMICS)
ABSTRACT
Identifying gene function is lagging due to the massive numbers of DNA sequences with unknown functions. It is estimated that two-thirds of genomic sequences have known functions, and of those only one-third have identified phenotypes. Perhaps, the slow manual process of defining phenotypes, one at a time, has hampered collection of phenotype data. High-through put automated phenotype experiments have been a challenge until recently. The advantage of phenomic research is the ability to conduct simultaneous testing of numerous bacterial phenotypes by using anautomated instrument to measure growth in the presence of various substrates. These instruments determine cell grow the very 5 min by monitoring absorbance of substrate color change of a tetrazolium indicator. The addition of phenotypic microarrays to gene expressions and proteomic research is very important. DNA analysis of bacterial genomes might predict the gene function, but phenotype analysis will help to detect the function of these networking genes in the biology of bacterial cells. Phenomics has the ability to discover the expression variability of a single gene in many different growth conditions, thus helping to predict expression of relevant networking genes.