Methodology article
Multifactorial experimental design and the transitivity of ratios with spotted DNA microarrays
-
Correspondence: Jeffrey P Townsend townsend@nature.berkeley.edu
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, 321 Koshland Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
BMC Genomics 2003, 4:41 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-4-41
Published: 2 October 2003Abstract
Background
Multifactorial experimental designs using DNA microarrays are becoming increasingly common, but the extent of the transitivity of cDNA microarray expression measurements across multiple samples has yet to be explored.
Results
A strong correlation between direct and transitive inference for significantly differentially expressed genes is demonstrated, using subsets of a dye-swap loop design.
Conclusions
In experimental design, opportunities for transitive inference should be exploited, while always ensuring that comparisons of greatest interest comprise direct hybridizations.