Development of the first marmoset-specific DNA microarray (EUMAMA): a new genetic tool for large-scale expression profiling in a non-human primate.
BACKGROUND
The common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus), a small non-endangered New World primate native to eastern Brazil, is becoming increasingly used as a non-human primate model in biomedical research, drug development and safety assessment. In contrast to the growing interest for the marmoset as an animal model, the molecular tools for genetic analysis are extremely limited.


RESULTS
Here we report the development of the first marmoset-specific oligonucleotide microarray (EUMAMA) containing probe sets targeting 1541 different marmoset transcripts expressed in hippocampus. These 1541 transcripts represent a wide variety of different functional gene classes. Hybridisation of the marmoset microarray with labelled RNA from hippocampus, cortex and a panel of 7 different peripheral tissues resulted in high detection rates of 85% in the neuronal tissues and on average 70% in the non-neuronal tissues. The expression profiles of the 2 neuronal tissues, hippocampus and cortex, were highly similar, as indicated by a correlation coefficient of 0.96. Several transcripts with a tissue-specific pattern of expression were identified. Besides the marmoset microarray we have generated 3215 ESTs derived from marmoset hippocampus, which have been annotated and submitted to GenBank [GenBank: EF214838-EF215447, EH380242-EH382846].


CONCLUSIONS
We have generated the first marmoset-specific DNA microarray and demonstrated its use to characterise large-scale gene expression profiles of hippocampus but also of other neuronal and non-neuronal tissues. In addition, we have generated a large collection of ESTs of marmoset origin, which are now available in the public domain. These new tools will facilitate molecular genetic research into this non-human primate animal model.
Datson
Nicole A
NA
Division of Medical Pharmacology, Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands. datson_n@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl
Morsink
Maarten C
MC
Atanasova
Srebrena
S
Armstrong
Victor W
VW
Zischler
Hans
H
Schlumbohm
Christina
C
Dutilh
Bas E
BE
Huynen
Martijn A
MA
Waegele
Brigitte
B
Ruepp
Andreas
A
de Kloet
E Ronald
ER
Fuchs
Eberhard
E
D000818:Animals; D019921:Biotinylation; D002144:Callithrix / Q000235:genetics*; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D016678:Genome; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D012313:RNA