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Microarray gene expression studies: experimental design, statistical data analysis, and applications in livestock research

Microarray technology allows monitoring thousands of genes simultaneously in a specific tissue of an organism, in different developmental stages or environmental conditions. Microarrays are very common in functional genomics experiments with both animals and plant species, and they have been increasingly used also in different areas of livestock research, such as growth and metabolism, reproduction, immune response to diseases and parasites, response to non-infectious stress factors (such as dietary restriction, exposure to toxic elements and other unfavorable environmental conditions) as well as animal breeding. Such experiments, however, are still considerably expensive and time consuming and, consequently, they are performed with relatively small sample sizes. Nonetheless, microarray experiments are extremely complex, as they involve a number of laboratorial procedures such as sample collection, RNA extraction, reverse transcription and labeling, and the final hybridization. Hence, microarray assays require careful experimental planning and statistical data analysis. In this manuscript, basic principles of experimental design for microarray studies are reviewed, as well as the most common statistical and computational tools used for their analysis. In addition, some examples of application of microarray technology in animal science are discussed, and some concluding remarks are presented afterward.

animal science; experimental design; microarrays; statistical analysis


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