This is when next-generation sequencers have entered the market. Applying this technique to several different organisms has demonstrated that the complexity of transcriptomes has indeed been vastly underestimated. Later generations of microarrays (referred to as “tiling arrays”), which consist of probes designed to interrogate a genome systematically irrespective of any gene annotation, have been instrumental in discovering unknown transcripts. Similarly, with the increasing realisation that RNAs transcribed from non-coding portions of genomes are playing fundamental roles, genome-wide approaches have provided valuable insights into this aspect of transcriptomes. The ability to analyse entire gene expression programmes has opened new horizons for our understanding of global processes regulating gene expression. For more than 10 years, microarrays have allowed the simultaneous monitoring of expression levels of all annotated genes in cell populations.
An in-depth understanding of the principles and mechanisms governing these complex gene expression programmes is important to better understand complex diseases such as cancer. These networks need to be robust as well as highly plastic in order to allow rapid adaptation to environmental or genetic perturbations. The synthesis and maturation of RNAs are tightly controlled, and they shape complex gene expression networks that ultimately drive biological processes. Regulation of gene expression is fundamental to link genotypes with phenotypes.
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