Current microarray technologies allow high-density in situ synthesis of oligonucleotides or ex situ spotting of target molecules
(cDNA) for conducting genome-wide comparative gene expression profiling studies. The avalanche of available microarray gene
expression data from model plant species covering cell-related, tissue-specific, and developmental events, as well as perturbations
to a variety of environmental stimuli has triggered many activities regarding the development of adequate bioinformatics tools
for the analysis of these complex data sets. In this chapter we summarize the technical issues of different microarray technologies,
discuss the availability of bioinformatics tools, and present approaches to extract biologically meaningful knowledge. For
case studies of abiotic stress transcriptome analysis we highlight the unprecedented opportunities provided by these high-throughput
technologies to understand networks of regulatory and metabolic pathway responses of plant cells to the application of abiotic
stress stimuli.
Key words Array technology - microarrays - macroarrays - transcriptome analysis - bioinformatics tools - abiotic stress