High correspondence between Affymetrix exon and standard expression arrays

Exon arrays aim to provide comprehensive gene expression data at the level of individual exons, similar to that provided on a per-gene basis by existing expression arrays. This report describes the performance of Affymetrix GeneChip® Human Exon 1.0 ST array by using replicated RNA samples from two human cell lines, MCF7 and MCF10A, hybridized both to Exon 1.0 ST and to HG-U133 Plus2 arrays. Cross-comparison between array types requires an appropriate mapping to be found between individual probe sets. Three possible mappings were considered, reflecting different strategies for dealing with probe sets that target different parts of the same transcript. Irrespective of the mapping used, Exon 1.0 ST and HG-U133 Plus2 arrays show a high degree of correspondence. More than 80% of HG-U133 Plus2 probe sets may be mapped to the Exon chip, and fold changes are found well preserved for over 96% of those probe sets detected present. Since HG-U133 Plus2 arrays have already been extensively validated, these results lend a significant degree of confidence to exon arrays.