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Empirical establishment of oligonucleotide probe design criteriausing perfect match and mismatch probes and artificial targets

Journal Article · · Applied and Environmental Microbiology
OSTI ID:860356
Criteria for the design of gene-specific and group-specific oligonucleotide probes were established experimentally via anoligonucleotide array that contained perfect match (PM) and mismatch probes (50-mers and 70-mers) based upon four genes. The effects of probe-target identity, continuous stretch, mismatch position, and hybridization free energy on specificity were tested. Little hybridization was observed at a probe-target identity of 85 percent for both 50-mer and 70-mer probes. PM signal intensities (33 to 48 percent) were detected at a probe-target identity of 94 percent for 50-meroligonucleotides and 43 to 55 percent for 70-mer probes at a probe-target identity of 96 percent. When the effects of sequence identity and continuous stretch were considered independently, a stretch probe (>15bases) contributed an additional 9 percent of the PM signal intensity compared to a nonstretch probe (15 bases) at the same identity level. Cross-hybridization increased as the length of continuous stretch increased. A 35-base stretch for 50-mer probes or a 50-base stretch for 70-mer probes had approximately 55 percent of the PM signal. Little cross-hybridization was observed for probes with a minimal binding free energy greater than 30 kcal/mol for 50-mer probes or 40 kcal/mol for 70-mer probes. Based on the experimental results, a set of criteria are suggested for the design of gene-specific and group-specific oligonucleotide probes, and the experimentally established criteria should provide valuable information for new software and algorithms for microarray-based studies.
Research Organization:
OLLABORATION - Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
860356
Report Number(s):
LBNL--58739
Journal Information:
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Journal Name: Applied and Environmental Microbiology Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 71; ISSN AEMIDF; ISSN 0099-2240
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English