Expression profiling by oligonucleotide microarrays spotted on coated polymer slides.

We have developed a ready-to-spot polymer microarray slide, which is coated with a uniform layer of reactive electrophilic groups using anthraquinone-mediated photo-coupling chemistry. The slide coating reduces the hydrophobicity of the native polymer significantly, thereby enabling robust and efficient one-step coupling of spotted 5' amino-linked oligonucleotides onto the polymer slide. The utility of the coated polymer slide in gene expression profiling was assessed by fabrication of spotted oligonucleotide microarrays using a collection of 5' amino-linked 70-mer oligonucleotide probes representing 96 yeast genes from Operon.