Perspective: micoarrays and differential display PCR-tools for studying transcript levels of genes in neuroendocrine systems.

A central goal of neuroendocrinology is the understanding of how hormones modulate a variety of neurobiological functions including releasing factors for anterior pituitary secretions and behavior. We know that mechanisms of hormone actions clearly include the activation and repression of genes either directly through nuclear hormone receptors or indirectly, through a series of transduced signals originating from membrane receptors. Until recently, identification of the differentially expressed genes has been a "gene-at-a-time" proposition. With the advent of the completion of sequencing of several genomes including those of the human and mouse, new methods for the simultaneous assessment of many genes' expression are proving especially timely. Two such methods, differential display PCR and gene microarrays, are based on the well-established principles of DNA amplification and nucleic acid hybridization, respectively. With properly designed and well-executed experiments, these methods are powerful tools in the assessment of differentially expressed genes yielding results both expected and unanticipated.