An a posteriori strategy for enhancing gene discovery in anonymous cDNA microarray experiments

Because of the high cost of sequencing, the bulk of gene discovery is performed using anonymous cDNA microarrays. Though the clones on such arrays are easier and cheaper to construct and utilize than unigene and oligonucleotide arrays, they are there in proportion to their corresponding gene expression activity in the tissue being examined. The associated redundancy will be there in any pool of possibly interesting differentially expressed clones identified in a microarray experiment for subsequent sequencing and investigation. An a posteriori sampling strategy is proposed to enhance gene discovery by reducing the impact of the redundancy in the identified pool.