Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) is a powerful technique to study gene expression at the genome level. However, a disadvantage of the shortness of SAGE tags is that it prevents further study of SAGE library data, thus limiting extensive application of the SAGE method in gene expression studies. However, this problem can be solved by extension of the SAGE tags to 3' cDNAs. Therefore, several methods based on PCR have been developed to generate a 3' longer fragment cDNA corresponding to a SAGE tag. The list of modified methods is extensive, and includes rapid RT-PCR analysis of unknown SAGE tags (RAST-PCR), generation of longer cDNA fragments from SAGE tags for gene identification (GLGI), a high-throughput GLGI procedure, reverse SAGE (rSAGE), two-step analysis of unknown SAGE tags (TSAT-PCR), etc. These procedures are constantly being updated because they have characteristics and advantages that can be shared. Development of these methods has promoted the widespread use of the SAGE technique, and has accelerated the speed of studies of large-scale gene expression.