Production of oligonucleotide microarrays
Oligonucleotide microarrays, can be produced through DNA synthesis on solid surfaces (glass surface is of then used) using combinatorial chemistry methods (for combinatorial chemistry, consult). Since in such an in situ method, it is not possible to purify the full lenght reaction product, this in situ synthesis puts a limitation on the length of oligonucleotides that can be synthesized. However, advantage of the technique is, that large number of oligonucleotides, at many sites, can be synthesized simultaneously, and data can be collected without physically handling the clones. This also allows a very high density of microarrays. Two different techniques are known for the production of oligonucleotide microarrays.