GOBOOT: Testing set enrichment analysis robustness to background selection

CRISTÓBAL FRESNO; ANDREA S LLERA; MARÍA R GIROTTI; MARÍA PÍA VALACCO; JUAN A LÓPEZ; OSVALDO L PODHAJCER; MÓNICA G BALZARINI; FEDERICO PRADA; ELMER A FERNÁNDEZ

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; ISCB Latin America 2012; 2012

Set enrichment analysis identifies enriched biological categories/terms by evaluating the proportion of differentially expressed genes against a background reference (BR) in high- throughput experiments. However, results will depend on BR choice. Currently there is no way to analyze enrichment robustness to BR choice. Bootstrapped versions of a given BR were carried out to provide robustness of enriched terms to BR selection. Thus, terms with a high stability are candidates to by explored leaving spurious enrichment out of the analysis. Results showed that stable terms were found to validate main experimental hypothesis and also new terms emerged providing new biological insight.