miRLink™ v11.0 Array Performance Specifications

Performance specifications of the miRLink Array Service reflect the robustness of the CodeLink® platform and the proficiency of Asuragen's scientists.

Performance Specifications
Metric Asuragen's method
Recommended Input 500 ng total RNA (no fractionation required); 1 ug for cell lines
LOD1 < 5 amol
Dynamic Range1 > 2.5 logs
Reproducibility (R2)2 0.99 (median CV < 3%)
Dose-Response Linearity (R2)1 0.99
Relative Accuracy1,3 1.12 ± 0.18
Specificity4 > 1 nt with < 10% cross-hybridization signal from highly-related, similar sequences
Sample QC Incoming sample QC by Spectrophotometer, and TaqMan qRT-PCR.
If, for any reason, a qualified sample does not pass our process control specifications, we will re-run the sample at no additional charge.

Footnotes:

1... Limit of Detection (LOD, Dynamic Range, Dose-Response Linearity, and Relative Accuracy are all based on latin-square spike-in study in a complex background of placenta total RNA processed according to the miRLink Array Service protocols.

2... Reproducibility reflects linear R2 values between full-process technical replicates.

3... Relative accuracy describes the degree to which the system responds to linear changes in the concentration of spike-in controls. The dose response slope measures the accuracy of reported fold-change relative to the known fold-change of a serial dilution series of miRNA spikes. A slope of 1.0 indicates perfect relative accuracy; slopes of approximately 0.8 are typical of microarray-based platforms as they are known to compress data.

4... Specificity of miRLink arrays is based on performance assessment on let-7 family members.

Linear Dynamic Range

Two process replicates are demonstrated here, illustrating the range of spikes used in the Latin-square design (5 amol to 1.6 fmol). Note that the range defined by the spikes brackets the biologically relevant range of the placenta total RNA.

Linear Dynamic Range

*Calculations are for 500 ng of input mass with assumption of 5pg RNA/cell.

Outstanding correlation with qRT-PCR and other commercially available platforms, even from fixed (FFPE) tissues

Eight FFPE blocks corresponding to four samples of two different tissue types (A and B) from eight different patients were purchased from Proteogenex Inc (Culver City, CA). All paraffin blocks were less than two years old. Total RNA was extracted from each of these blocks by Asuragen’s FFPE RNA isolation services team. 500 ng of total RNA isolated from each FFPE sample was analyzed with the Asuragen miRLink Service; 200 ng of total RNA was analyzed using the Agilent V2 miRNA Array and 100 ng of total RNA was analyzed with the Asuragen DiscovArray Service.

A series of qRT-PCR reactions were performed using TaqMan microRNA assays# specific for 6 different miRNAs following manufacturer’s instructions and using an input of 15ng total RNA per reaction. Real-time reactions were run on the 7900HT fast realtime PCR system# and initial analysis of data was done using the SDS 2.3 software included.

The following figures demonstrate the remarkable correlation between the qRT-PCR data and the data obtained from different array-based platforms with high statistical significance (p-values as shown). These p-values demonstrate the overall reproducibility of the new miRLink process.

plarform comparison miRLink

In all figures, the array data shown are VSN normalized values and the TaqMan data are ΔCTs.

Let-7 Family Specificity Study

Specificity (cross hybridization of probes) is an important metric when considering microarray platforms. A microarray with adequate specificity should be able to distinguish between highly correlated family members with over 90% sequence similarity. To test the specificity of Asuragen’s custom miRLink v11.0 array, we examined the ability of the array to distinguish several distinct miRNAs from the let-7 family. Each of the eight members of the let-7 family was spiked individually (1 fmol) into 50ng of yeast t-RNA and labeled and hybridized onto the microarrays. As a comparison similar data were included for the Agilent miRNA Array platform as reported by Agilent (Wang et al., RNA, 2007).

The figure shows probe–target sequence specificity of the human let-7 family. The total signals reported by all the probes were normalized to the perfect match probe–target hybrid for each microarray. The numbers represent percent of signal detected for each spike as normalized to the perfect match probe-target pair. The colors represent number of mismatches, as shown in the color key below the figure (green – perfect match, yellow – one mismatch and so on).

miRLink and Agilent specificity comparison
legend

Interested in Asuragen's other miRNA services? [Click here]

#...(Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA)

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