Eight good reasons to use SuperSAGE technology:

	Microarrays Closed architecture platform	SuperSAGE Technology Open architecture platform
1	Only transcripts of genes spotted on the array  can be detected	Any transcript can be identified
2	Unable to detect novel genes	Novel genes can be detected  and analysed
3	Limited to (supposedly) known genomes	The transcriptome of any eucaryotic organism can be analysed
4	Rare transcripts* hardly detectable	Precise quantification of even rare transcripts*
5	False positives due to cross-hybridisation	No false-positives, each transcript identified by a highly specific 26 bp tag sequence
6	Measures semiquantitatve signal intensities only	Counts SuperTAGs, produces   exact transcript copy numbers
7	Data analysis and interpretation ambiguous  (strong environmental influences)	No ambiguity in data analysis, independence   of environmental influences (e.g. ozone)
8	Poor correlation between different microarray  platforms (strong environmental influences)	SuperSAGE library construction is   standardized and highly reproducible

*Rare transcipts

Since 95% of all mRNAs are represented by only 1-5 copies per cell, most of this precious information is lost on microarrays. Below, the the distribution of more than 500.000 tags from a mouse study is shown. More than 75 % of the tags are rare (1-5 copies).