A revolutionary evolution

摘要

In 1977 Alwine and colleagues developed the Northern blot,doing to gene expression studies what the Wright brothers did to transportation-they got it off the ground and launched a new era.Now,a quarter of a century later,scientists are trying to understand how whole genomes are expressed,not just a single gene.And using Northern blot analysis to measure the expression of a genome-possibly containing 30,000 or more genes-would be like using Orville and Wilbur's original "Flyer" to transport the millions of daily air travellers to their destinations.