Various bioanalytical tools including DNA microarrays are frequently used to map global
transcriptional changes in mycotoxin producer filamentous fungi. This effective hybridization-based
transcriptomics technology helps researchers to identify genes of secondary metabolite
gene clusters and record concomitant gene expression changes in these clusters initiated
by versatile environmental conditions and/or gene deletions. Such transcriptional
data are of great value when future mycotoxin control technologies are considered
and elaborated. Giving the readers insights into RNA extraction and DNA microarray
hybridization steps routinely used in our laboratories and also into the normalization
and evaluation of primary gene expression data, we would like to contribute to the
interlaboratory standardization of DNA microarray based transcriptomics studies being
carried out in many laboratories worldwide in this important field of fungal biology.
