Why are some of the spots on the microarrays listed as “Do not use. Not validated” ?
Several steps are involved in making microarrays including selecting clones, growing clones, preparing DNA, sequence verification, PCR amplification, gel analysis and quantitation. The TIGR potato microarrays are done in a high-throughput manner (i.e., microtiter plates of 96 wells). If a well (clone,element) fails for any of the above reasons, the clone (element) is considered “Not Validated”. It is not feasible to remove the element from the printing step as this would involve further manipulations and a greater chance of tracking error. Thus, these non-validated elements are retained through the process but are categorized as “Not Validated” for the user.
