Improving the power for detecting overlapping genes from multiple DNA microarray-derived gene lists

Background: In DNA microarray gene expression profiling studies, a fundamental task is to extract statistically significant genes that meet certain research hypothesis. Currently, Venn diagram is a frequently used method for identifying overlapping genes that meet the investigator's research hypotheses. However this simple operation of intersecting multiple gene lists, known as the Intersection-Union Tests (IUTs), is performed without knowing the incurred changes in Type 1 error rate and can lead to loss of discovery power. Results: We developed an IUT adjustment procedure, called Relaxed IUT (RIUT), which is proved to be less conservative and more powerful for intersecting independent tests than the traditional Venn diagram approach. The advantage of the RIUT procedure over traditional IUT is demonstrated by empirical Monte-Carlo simulation and two real toxicogenomic gene expression case studies. Notably, the enhanced power of RIUT enables it to identify overlapping gene sets le...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Xutao Deng, Jun Xu, Charles Wang
• Keywords: BMCBI 2008, Microarray Gene Expression, Multiple Gene Lists, Venn Diagram