FAQ Categories

Experiment Design

Sample Submission

LncRNA Research

circRNA Research

tRNA/tRF/tiRNA Research

Epigenetic Research

RNA Sequencing

Data Analysis

Questions & Answers

Experiment Design

Why do I need biological replicates? Isn’t one sample per group enough?

Biological replicates increase the probability that your array results are statistically significant. As with any experiment in biology, genetic differences exist between individuals with the same apparent phenotype, even in inbred laboratory strains. If you were to test only one individual per experimental group, you would not be able to conclude with confidence that any observed difference is due to the difference in experimental conditions. It is always possible that an underlying, otherwise “invisible” genotypic variation is contributing to your results. Only by examining more than one individual per group can you determine whether or not a differential expression result is real. This is especially important in order to reduce the occurrence of false negatives, which you will never see.

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How many biological replicates per group do you recommend?

We strongly recommend a minimum of three biological replicates per group to achieve the most statistically significant data. There are two major reasons for why we do not recommend using fewer than three. First, if you had only 1 sample per group, there is a chance, that that one individual represents an “outlier”. However, since you only tested one sample in that group, you would never know whether it is an outlier or not. Further, if you had two biological replicates per group, one of those individuals could represent the outlier. However, if such was the case, you would not know which of the two individuals in that group represented the outlier. Only if you have three or more replicates per group can you be reasonably confident that any genetic differences observed between groups are real, because it is highly unlikely to have two outliers in a group of three. For mammalian tissues, we prefer six biological replicates per group, due to the heterogeneity of cell populations in tissues.

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Do you need to run technical replicates?

No. The arrays have been validated many times, and contain control probes. So, technical replicates are a waste of money.

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Sample Submission

How to determine whether or not RNA extracted from FFPE samples is suitable for expression profiling?

Due to the severe degradation of RNA extracted from FFPE samples, it is unlikely that one can obtain an accurate RIN from the Agilent Bioanalyzer. Instead, we run the RNA on a MOPS-formaldehyde gel and visually inspect the ribosomal RNA bands. If we are able to see even traces of these ribosomal RNA bands on the gel, we go ahead and proceed with the expression profiling experiment.

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For FFPE samples, should we send FFPE samples or the extracted RNA?

The main problem with FFPE samples is that the RNA is typically degraded. Therefore, obtaining the highest yield and quality of RNA from the de-paraffinization and extraction procedures is essential for obtaining high quality profiling data, for both microarrays and sequencing. Arraystar has many years of experience performing extraction of RNA from FFPE samples. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you send us your FFPE samples, and we will extract the RNA for you using our optimized protocols.

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Which method do Arraystar recommend to extracting total RNA from samples?

At Arraystar, we use TRIzol® Reagent from Life Technologies for extraction of total RNA from cells and tissues (http://www.lifetechnologies.com/order/catalog/product/15596026). However, if you have experience with total RNA isolation, then we recommend using whichever method you are most comfortable with. There are several other good RNA extraction methods as well, such as Qiagen’s RNeasy kit (http://www.qiagen.com/qdm/rna/rneasy-plus-kits?cmpid=Qven10GARneasy). The most important objective for total RNA isolation is to obtain as high a yield as possible with minimal degradation and contamination from proteins, DNA, and organic solvents, regardless of the extraction method used.

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Should I submit total RNA or isolated miRNA for Arraystar’s miRNA seq and miRNA PCR array services?

  1. Our seq and miRStarTM systems have been specifically optimized for use on total RNA extracted using Trizol method.
  2. To avoid miRNA loss during purification, we recommend you submit total RNA not small RNAs.
  3. If you have isolated miRNA, technically we can do it, but we shall not assure the success of sequencing library preparation that is affected by the extraction efficiency of small RNA. We highly recommend that you should monitor the extraction efficiency with Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer, and provide the results to us.

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LncRNA Research

Is too provocative to think that we may discover coding function for the lnc RNA after all?

It is still a challenge to distinguish LncRNAs from mRNAs, and there is currently no “perfect” tools or databases available for the reliable collection of LncRNAs. To solve this problem, Arraystar has developed a stringent computational pipeline to reliably identify lncRNAs. All the candidate transcripts were carefully filtered by known annotations and positive coding potential, and any candidate containing a substantial open reading frame (ORF) covering 35% or more of its length and containing Pfam/Tigfam protein domains is rejected.

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Is there any database available to compare the expression of lncRNAs between tumor tissues and match normal tissues?

Unfortunately, there is no such kind of database available at present.

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Does each lncRNA have a polyA tail?

Most of the lncRNAs (75%) have a poly-A tail, while some of them don't.

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Do all LncRNAs must have biological function?

We cannot make an assertion that all LncRNAs must have biological functions. Although the functional roles of LncRNAs are largely unknown, many LncRNAs have been discovered having important biological functions. A significant number of them have also been shown to exhibit cell type-specific expression, precise localization to subcellular compartments, and deregulation in various human diseases, suggesting that the majority of LncRNAs are likely to be functional. Some could be used as biomarkers in lieu of a precise biological function.

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What databases does Arraystar use as the sources of LncRNAs on the LncRNA arrays?

Arraystar uses NCBI RefSeq, UCSC known genes, RNAdb2.0, NRED, UCRs, GENCODE, and FANTOM (mouse) as the source databases for LncRNAs. Additional LncRNAs, primarily the lincRNAs (long intergenic noncoding RNAs) are taken from landmark publications. After database selection, highly similar sequences and non-coding RNAs shorter than 200 bp are excluded. For the protein-coding genes, we use NCBI RefSeq and CCDS. CCDS is a collaboration between NCBI, the European Bioinformatics Institute, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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What are the positive control probes on the human LncRNA array?

We designed probes to detect 20 housekeeping genes as positive controls, and are replicated 10 times. These 20 genes are NM_002455, NM_021009, NM_006013, NM_001536, NM_003746, NM_002107, NM_000754, NM_003753, NM_001003, NM_001101, NM_006098, NM_002539, NM_022551, NM_004309, NM_002046, NM_001861, NM_000291, NM_005022, NM_001614 and NM_000841.

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What are the negative control probes on the human LncRNA array?

We designed negative control probes, which are named “NegativeXXX”.

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For the coding mRNA on the array, is it just the exon regions or is it the whole gene locus (introns and exons)?

For each protein-coding mRNA, we designed a probe targeting their specific exon or exon-junction regions.

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How does the microarray identify the different isoforms? Are there different wells for each probe?

Each array probe is designed to hybridize to a region unique to the isoform or crossing the exon splice junction. Each transcript isoform from the same gene has its own unique array probe. These probes are individually located on the array.

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Which should I use for Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) profiling: Microarray or Next Generation Sequencing?

There are several scientifically-sound reasons for why you should choose microarrays over next-generation sequencing for LncRNA expression profiling. First, it has been shown that most LncRNAs are expressed at significantly lower levels than mRNAs (1, 2). Therefore, many more sequencing reads are required for LncRNA analysis than for mRNAs due to their low abundance. Recent publications used more than 120 million raw reads per sample in order to obtain acceptable coverage of LncRNAs (2,3). Second, only 1,000-4,000 LncRNAs are detected by greater than 120 million sequencing reads (3), while 7,000-12,000 LncRNAs are normally detectable using Arraystar LncRNA arrays. Therefore, LncRNA arrays can detect more LncRNAs than Next Generation Sequencing, at a lower cost.

References

  1. Guttman, et al. (2010). Nature Biotechnology 28, 503.
  2. Cabili, et al. (2011). Genes Dev. 25, 1950.
  3. Markus et al. (2012). Genes Dev. 26, 338-343

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How can I obtain the sequences of the LncRNAs I am interested in studying further?

Each of the LncRNAs represented on the Arraystar LncRNA arrays is annotated in one of several different public databases. Each of these databases has its own unique procedure for retrieving sequence information from a given gene. Arraystar provides a separate document that gives instructions on how to obtain the sequences of LncRNAs of interest. Please contact us.

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Are there any integrated database similar to GeneCards, Biocarta, Kegg to link the LncRNAs with cancer or other pathways? Existing LncRNA data mining tools are not very user friendly?

There are several LncRNA databases or online resources such as lncRNAdb (http://www.lncrnadb.org/) or LncRNADisease (http://202.38.126.151/hmdd/html/tools/lncrnadisease.html) that offer some of the functionalities.

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How is the LncRNA symbol (e.g. RP11-387H17.6) designated in the LncRNA Path array? What does the .6 stands for? Where does the RP11-387H17.6 come from?

A lncRNA symbol is the gene symbol/accession for the gene that encodes the lncRNA transcript as cataloged in the source database. For example, lncRNA (ENST00000583462) is encoded by its gene (RP11-387H17.6) in the Ensembl database (http://grch37.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Idhistory?g=ENSG00000265799;r=17:38168479-38170958). Often the annotation version number is indicated after the dot (For example .6 means version 6). Most information about the gene/transcript can be followed with the hot links on the webpage. Major databases are often cross-referenced. You may also use the symbol to retrieve info in other public databases such as Pubmed/Nucleotide database (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/?term=RP11-387H17).

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circRNA Research

Could you send us at least the annotations of all circular RNAS probesets that are expressed in our samples after filtering?

The annotations for the pass-filtering circRNAs have already been supplied in the "CircRNA Expression Profiling Data.xls" file in the "File 2. Data" folder.

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Are there any validation recommendations for circular RNA expression analysis?

  1. Design outward-facing primers
  2. Perform reverse transcription with random hexamer primer.
  3. Treat total RNA with RNase R to remove linear RNAs, thus reducing false positive signals.

You may refer to "Circular RNAs are abundant, conserved, and associated with ALU repeats" for detailed information.

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Does Arraystar provide the complete annotation of array probe sets (at least genomic coordinates and gene names) that are needed to compare the Arraystar results with our RNA seq data?

 Complete annotations for all circRNAs are not disclosed. However, the probe IDs and the probe sequences, but not annotation for the genes, will be deposited as a GEO platform in the NCBI GEO repository.

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Does Arraystar provide circular RNA expression vector?

We do not supply individual circRNAs.  However, investigagtors may construct, transfect and produce recombinant circular RNA using circular RNA expression vector by themselves. A description of recombinant circular RNA production can be found in the publication:

Liang and Wilusz (2014) "Short intronic repeat sequences facilitate circular RNA production" Genes Dev. 2014 Oct 15; 28(20): 2233–2247. [PMCID: PMC4201285]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201285/

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Could you please send me the names of the circRNAs corresponding to each probe in the array?

The circular RNAs on the array were collected from various sources. The "CircRNA Expression Profiling Data.xls" contains circRNAs expressed in your samples. You will find "probeID" and the Arraystar consolidated "circRNA" names (Column T). The same information is also available in "Differentially Expressed CircRNAs.xls" for the differentially expressed circRNAs. Additionally, the sequences for differentially expressed circRNAs are provided in "Differentially expressed circRNA sequences.fa". Also, if the "source" column is "circBase", you can use the "alias" as the accession ID to search circBase.org records. For circRNAs never expressed in your samples, the annotation is limited to the probeIDs as in the raw data.

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tRNA/tRF/tiRNA Research

For nrStar™ Human tRF&tiRNA PCR Array, is the input total RNA or isolated small RNAs? How much starting RNA is required?

For your use as a purchased product, either total RNA or isolated small RNA is OK, although total RNA is preferred. For Arraystar provided full service, we only start with total RNA. A total RNA amount over 1.5 ug is the best, although it can range from 100 ng to 2.0 μg.

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Where can I view the tRF/tiRNA sequences on nrStar™ Human tRF&tiRNA PCR Array?

For 88 and 13 tRFs/tiRNAs respectively collected from the public tRFdb database and MINTbase, you may find the sequences from the site (http://genome.bioch.virginia.edu/trfdb/) or (https://cm.jefferson.edu/MINTbase/). For the other 84 tRFs/tiRNAs collected from publications, the sequences will be provided along with the purchased PCR panel.

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For Arraystar tRF/tiRNA-qPCR or sequencing, how do you deal with (a) bound amino acid; (b) methylated RNA; (c) no 5’ phosphate; (d) 3’ phosphate?

Most tRFs/tiRNAs generated by Dicer cleavage already have 5'-P and 3'-OH ends. For effective adapter ligation, rtStar™ tRF&tiRNA Pretreatment Kit protocol includes (a) 3’-terminal deacylation step to remove bound amino acid; (b) demethylase to remove internal methyl group modification; (c) kinase for 5’ phosphate addition; (d) 3’ phosphate and cyclic phosphate removal.

For more details, please visit tRF&tiRNA Pretreatment Kit product page (https://www.arraystar.com/rtstar-trfandtirna-pretreatment-kit/) and Arraystar tRNA/tRF/tiRNA Research Area (https://www.arraystar.com/trna/trf/tirna-research/).

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Is rtStar™ tRNA-optimized First-Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (AS-FS-004) required for nrStar™ tRNA PCR Array? Is rtStar™ tRF&tiRNA Pretreatment Kit (AS-FS-005) required for nrStar™ tRF&tiRNA PCR Array?

If RNA is not pretreated before cDNA synthesis, the cDNA synthesis quality is impaired.

For tRNA cDNA synthesis, rtStar™ tRNA-optimized First-Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (AS-FS-004) includes an RNA demethylation step that enzymatically removes m1A, m1G and m3C.

For tRF&tiRNA cDNA synthesis, a separate rtStar™ tRF&tiRNA Pretreatment Kit (AS-FS-005) is used first on the RNA sample before cDNA synthesis, which prepares the tRNA fragment termini for adapter ligation and also removes m1A, m1G and m3C.

For more details, please visit Arraystar tRNA/tRF/tiRNA Research Area (https://www.arraystar.com/trna/trf/tirna-research/).

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Why is there the big price difference between tRF/tiRNA (AS-FS-003) and tRNA cDNA synthesis (AS-FS-004) kits?

tRF/tiRNA cDNA Synthesis Kit uses 3’ and 5’ adaptors. The cost of 5’-adenylation activated/3’-blocked adaptor synthesis is high. As tRNA cDNA Synthesis Kit does not use the high cost adaptor synthesis, its price is therefore lower.

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Can tRNA and tRF/tiRNA be profiled in the same sequencing experiment?

tRNA (60~100 nt) and tRF/tiRNA (15~45 nt) have different size ranges, RNA pretreatment, cDNA synthesis, and sequencing library construction requirements. Currently, we use enhanced hydro-tRNA-seq for tRNA, where full length mature tRNAs are first isolated by gel electrophoresis and then partially hydrolyzed to smaller fragments to overcome strong tRNA structure and modification problems. Such a work flow is not compatible with tRF/tiRNA-seq.

If the species is human or mouse, we recommend using nrStar™ tRNA PCR Array (https://www.arraystar.com/nrstar-trna-pcr-array/) and nrStar™ tRF&tiRNA PCR Array (https://www.arraystar.com/nrstar-trfandtirna-pcr-array/). These qPCR panels have the coverage for all anticodon tRNAs and tRF/tiRNAs in the databases. Additional benefits compared with sequencing:

  • Fast turn-around time. You can run the qPCR yourself.
  • Gold standard qPCR quantification accuracy better than sequencing. No need for follow-up validation as sequencing results.
  • Highly sensitive and low sample amount requirement. Good enough even for serum/plasma/biofluid sample sources.

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Does your tRNA or tRF/tiRNA sequencing differ from any other small RNA seq and how?

Generic small RNA sequencing does not pre-treat and prepare tRNA and tRNA fragments by demethylation, deacylation, 5’-phosphorylation, and 3’-dephosphorylation, which are known to severely impair the sequencing quality and coverage. The results are inadequate and poor. Arraystar is the only commercial service provider that include all these vital procedures to achieve best results.

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Should we do a DNA clean up after the RT and before doing my qPCR?

You do not need to do post-cDNA synthesis clean-up. Dilute the cDNA in Nuclease-free water. The dilution factor is empirical depending on the input RNA amount. If 1 ug input RNA is used with rtStar™ tRNA-optimized First-Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Cat#AS-FS-004), the dilution factor is 1:40.

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Do you provide tRNA/tRF/tiRNA sequencing for non-modeling organism such as Plasmodium falciparum? Sequencing-only service for raw data without data analysis?

If you can provide the transcriptome, tRNA and genome reference databases for non-model species other than human, mouse or rat, such as Plasmodium falciparum, we can provide the sequencing and data analysis service.

If no reference database is available, we may provide raw data-only sequencing services for non-modeling organisms. Please inquire to confirm.

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For tRF sequencing, do your results include only those tRFs in tRFdb? How about non-annotated ones?

tRFs/tiRNAs are annotated by alignment with GtRNAdb, which can identify all known and novel tRFs and tiRNAs, including the tRFs cataloged in tRFdb. Along with the analyses, raw read data are also provided for your own novel tRF/tiRNA discovery.

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Epigenetic Research

What are the quality control steps to determine whether the hMeDIP procedure was successful? Are there any particular genes Arraystar tests for with qPCR that are constitutively hydroxymethylated in normal tissue irrespective of origin?

Before immunoprecipitation, a synthetic oligonucleotide containing 5hmC at CpG positions is mixed with the fragmented genomic DNA as a spike-in positive control. The enrichment of hydroxymethylated DNA by immunoprecipitation is assessed by qPCR using the positive control sequence.

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In the event that hMeDIP capture fails for any given submitted sample or in the event that sequencing or array analysis is performed, but peaks/hits are of low quantity and quality, what is the procedure that Arraystar would follow?

 If the hMeDIP-qPCR shows poor IP efficiency, we will repeat the IP experiment till the IP efficiency is achieved. However, we do not guarantee the peak quantity, because hydroxymethylation levels vary largely across different sample types.

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How to ensure the reliability of MeDIP experiment?

Several stringent quality control measures are implemented:

  • Sample DNA QC to ensure the submitted samples meet the amount and quality requirements of MeDIP.
  • Sonication QC to ensure the genomic DNA is fragmented to the desired size distribution.
  • H19 imprinting gene is used as the positive control of DNA methylation.
  • GAPDH housekeeping gene is used as a negative control of DNA methylation.
  • qPCR QC on the MeDIP and input DNAs of the positive and negative control gene loci to ensure the enrichment efficiency and specificity.
  • QC steps for microarray (MeDIP-chip) or sequencing (MeDIP-seq) from the MeDIP materials.

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RNA Sequencing

Is it is possible to get RNA-seq for total RNA and not just poly(A) selected?

RNA-seq is primarily used for mRNAs. Sequencing total RNA without mRNA enrichment is not recommended, as rRNAs alone constitute ~90% of the total RNA and can severely depress sequencing read coverage for mRNA class.  For intact RNA samples, mRNA is enriched by poly(A) selection. For significantly degraded RNA samples, rRNA removal method is used instead for better mRNA fragment retention.

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Would it be possible to get RNA-Seq for all RNA types including noncoding and specifically miRNAs?

Different RNA classes/biotypes have very substantially different properties that need separate procedures for effective profiling. For example, miRNA sizes are very small and need special end extension by adapter ligation and library sizing in miRNA size range (15~35 nt). tRNAs are heavily modified and structured, which need special enzymatic pretreatments. Long noncoding RNAs are often expressed and function at low levels and can be short in half-life, which need high sensitivity lncRNA microarray oligo probe capture for accurate profiling. For human canonical miRNAs, our 384-well qPCR panel can entirely cover them at gold standard accuracy and very high sensitivity, particularly better than miRNA-seq for miRNAs in biofluids.

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Data Analysis

How are the fold changes in a microarray experiment calculated? In my Excel file neither the raw nor the normalized signal intensities seem to correlate with the Fold change values.

 First, we do not use raw signal intensity values to determine fold changes. We only use the normalized values. Second, those normalized intensity values are log2 transformed. We calculate Fold Change by subtracting the normalized intensity value of one group from the normalized intensity value of another group. For example, if the normalized intensity of the control group is 3.5819511 and the normalized intensity of the experimental group is 5.984653. Subtracting the normalized intensity of the control group from the normalized intensity of the experimental group gives you 5.984653 - 3.5819511 = 2.4027019. Since the normalized intensities are actually log2 transformed, this result is actually the log2 of the fold change. Thus, the actual fold change is 2^2.4027019=5.2879257, which is the level of fold increase of expression in the control group vs. the experimental group. This is the value indicated in the fold change column labeled “FC (abs)”.

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In the Table entitled “Differentially expressed LncRNAs /mRNA.xls”, there are many entries (rows) are repeating and each counts an individual entry. I do not know how such things happen and how meaningful the data in this table would be.

  1. Arraystar divides all known LncRNAs into subgroups, based on their genomic organization with nearby protein-coding genes. These are: Sense-overlapping, antisense-overlapping, bidirectional, intronic, and intergenic. Some LncRNAs are closely associated with more than one transcript variant of the same coding gene. We listed all the transcripts of the gene in Column Q for your reference.
  2. Occasionally we see an LncRNA that is physically associated with more than one protein-coding gene, and thus might occur in more than one subgroup, or in the same subgroup multiple times.

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If control groups and experimental groups were hybridized on slides of different batch, how do you control batch effets?

The arrays were produced by Agilent manufacturing process and under stringent quality control, which guarantee very low technical variations among different arrays in the same production batch. Arraystar performs every single project using the same batch of arrays, reagents, kits, procedures and lab personnel, to minimize any batch effects. Biological variations far exceed any array technical variations. More importantly, array data across the arrays are quantile normalized for comparison; they are not compared by raw intensities. Any between-array technical difference has no effect on comparison. In other words, you do not need to concern about how the samples are arranged on the arrays.

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Is there a way to identify individual transcripts from the volcano plot, in other words, have a link from the plot to the Excel file?

It is possible to identify transcripts from the volcano plot. However, this can only be done with the GeneSpring analysis software.

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What scanner is Arraystar using for scanning the hybridization images?

We used the Agilent scanner model G2505C.

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What software is Arraystar using to extract raw and normalized data from microarrays?

For acquisition of array images, we use Agilent Feature Extraction software version 11.0.1.1. For data analysis, including data normalization and differential expression, we use Agilent GeneSpring GX.

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How are sample intensities on a microarray normalized?

The raw signal intensities of all samples are normalized using one of two methods, which are carried out in Agilent’s GeneSpring software package. The first method is “Median normalization”, in which the software divides the signal intensity of each gene by the median intensity of all the genes on the chip. The second method is “Quantile normalization”, which is used when there are a significant number of outliers. Most of our project data is Quantile-normalized.

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How do you determine/rank the changes?

When we perform a microarray experiment, the arrays are scanned by a scanning machine, which assigns a raw intensity value for each transcript represented on the array. Next, using "flags", we discard any transcript that does not appear to be expressed in any of your samples (either low signal/noise ratio or lack of signal and/or background uniformity). We then take the remaining raw signals and normalize them to the median intensity of all the signals on the array (or, alternatively, by quantile normalization). Finally, we use those normalized signal intensities for the fold change comparisons between groups. As mentioned above, we will set a fold change cutoff value, which is typically 2.0, but that can be adjusted if desired. We also set a cutoff of 0.05 for the p-value, but that too can be adjusted.

We typically don't rank the hits from highest to lowest or vice versa, but that is not an issue here. We provide the data in Excel, so you can easily set a rank order using the software.

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How to pick differentially expressed transcripts to validate?

Researchers can take at least two different approaches to validating their microarray data, depending on their individual research needs. One way is to validate all of the differentially expressed transcripts on the array, in an unbiased, high-throughput manner. Another way is to just focus on those differentially expressed transcripts that appear to be associated with a biological function of interest, using the GO and Pathway analysis data provided in your report. However, this latter approach might not be very effective in the case of LncRNAs, because there are a great many LncRNAs whose function and roles in cellular processes are unknown. In any case, we strongly recommend eliminating those transcripts that have extremely low raw signal intensities, and then picking transcripts with larger fold change, as well as lower p values.

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Why is one probe listed multiple times on my LncRNA array results?

Some LncRNAs are closely associated with more than one protein-coding gene.  Such LncRNAs are listed more than once in order to show the annotation information for all the associated protein-coding genes.

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I noticed that a gene I was expecting to see expression data for was not present in my report. Does it have a different name in the report, or is it not represented on the microarray?

One reason a given gene appears to be “not present” on the array is that its probe signal intensity did not meet our “flagging” criteria to be included in the analysis. The software we use to analyze the data assigns each probe in a particular sample one of three flags: “Present” (P), “Marginal” (M), or “Absent” (A). Probes are flagged as “A” based on one or more of the following criteria: 1) the signal intensity is too low; 2) the signal intensity is not uniform; 3) the background is too high; or 4) the background is not uniform. Preliminarily, “A” flagged probes are considered to be poorly or not expressed in that sample, while those flagged either “P” or “M” are considered to be expressed at a significant level. When we indicate the signal intensities in the Excel files in your report, we tell you the cutoff that was used in order for each probe to be included in the analysis. For example, if the cutoff for including probes in the analysis we use requires that at least 6 out of 9 samples have flags of “P” or “M”, and a given gene has been flagged as “A” in 5 samples, then it will not be included in the analysis, even though it is represented on the microarray.

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