Discrete signal transduction pathway utilization by a neuropeptide (PACAP) and a cytokine (TNF-alpha) first messenger in chromaffin cells, inferred from coupled transcriptome-promoter analysis of regulated gene cohorts.

•Affymetrix and Agilent microarray platforms are used to identify TNF-alpha and PACAP transcriptomes of bovine chromaffin cells.•These two platforms are compared for systems biology and gene discovery applications in these neuroendocrine cells.•Methods for combining gene lists from multiple platforms are described.•Final gene lists are used to identify transcription factors and signaling pathways employed by these two first messengers.