4. Biochips for the study of plants
Although beyond of the scope of this review, it is necessary to at least mention the existing biochips in the plant field. Some examples ofmultibiosensors have already been mentioned in the previous section. A biochip is a device that integrates several biosensors in the same platform.In other words, biochips are ordered sets of known biorecognition elements immobilised on precisely defined locations of a solid substrate. The biochip approach enables the simultaneous detection of tens,hundreds and even thousands of targets. Biochips are rapidly replacing other analysis techniques, especially in DNA sequencing, expression analysis and other high-throughput applications.Despite thewide variety of techniques available for biosensors, most biochips use fluorescence methods for detection. Fluorescence detection enables the scanning of the microarray surface in micrometer increments, recording the pixel values and translating them into a scanned image. After the corresponding data treatment, results can be interpreted.