Detecting hormonally active compounds

摘要

Purified nucleic acids that are responsive to estrogenic or androgenic agents and derived from fish have been cloned and sequenced. cDNAs that correspond to these nucleic acids are placed on an array containing a set of control genes. Using labeled cDNA probes generated from RNA isolated from control fish and fish exposed to estrogenic compounds, expression levels of the genes responsive to estrogenic compounds are measured. The arrays are useful for monitoring the presence of estrogenic contaminants that are hormonally active in the environment, as well as for screening compounds with estrogenic activity.