Improved protocol for SAGE tag-to-gene allocation.

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) is a powerful method for large-scale analysis of gene expression patterns. SAGE yields digital information on transcript abundance by the use of short sequence fragments (tags). Because SAGE does not require a priori knowledge of the expressed genes in the starting material, SAGE can be used for gene discovery.

Serial analysis of gene expression identifies metallothionein-II as major neuroprotective gene in mouse focal cerebral ischemia.

We applied serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) to study differentially expressed genes in mouse brain 14 hr after the induction of focal cerebral ischemia. Analysis of >60,000 transcripts revealed 83 upregulated and 94 downregulated transcripts (more than or equal to eightfold). Reproducibility was demonstrated by performing SAGE in duplicate on the same starting material.