Microarray Analysis of Embryonic Beak mRNA from Darwin’s Finches
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology/FAS Biological Laboratories 4105, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Corresponding author (aabzhano{at}genetics.med.harvard.edu)
INTRODUCTION
In this protocol, microarray technology is used as a very sensitive and rapid method to identify genes that are potentially involved in beak development and morphology in Darwin’s finches. The method allows for the direct comparison between cDNA targets from two different species (each labeled with a different dye). The prevalence of one of the dyes for any of the genes on the resulting scan indicates a higher level of accumulation of transcripts from that gene in a particular beak morphology/species. The obtained expression profiles can be clustered to identify transcripts that are expressed in a species- and/or size-specific manner.
