Application of Volcano Plots in Analyses of mRNA Differential Expressions with Microarrays

Volcano plot displays unstandardized signal (e.g. log-fold-change) against noise-adjusted/standardized signal (e.g. t-statistic or -log10(p-value) from the t test). We review the basic and an interactive use of the volcano plot, and its crucial role in understanding the regularized t-statistic. The joint filtering gene selection criterion based on regularized statistics has a curved discriminant line in the volcano plot, as compared to the two perpendicular lines for the "double filtering" criterion. This review attempts to provide an unifying framework for discussions on alternative measures of differential expression, improved methods for estimating variance, and visual display of a microarray analysis result. We also discuss the possibility to apply volcano plots to other fields beyond microarray.Comment: 8 figure

Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk

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Alternate Polypurine Tracts (PPTs) Affect the Rous Sarcoma Virus RNase H Cleavage Specificity and Reveal a Preferential Cleavage following a GA Dinucleotide Sequence at the PPT-U3 Junction

Retroviral polypurine tracts (PPTs) serve as primers for plus-strand DNA synthesis during reverse transcription. The generation and removal of the PPT primer requires specific cleavages by the RNase H activity of reverse transcriptases; removal of the PPT primer defines the left end of the linear viral DNA. We replaced the endogenous PPT from RSVP(A)Z, a replication-competent shuttle vector based on Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), with alternate retroviral PPTs and the duck hepatitis B virus “PPT.” Viruses in which the endogenous RSV PPT was replaced with alternate PPTs had lower relative titers than the wild-type virus. 2-LTR circle junction analysis showed that the alternate PPTs caused significant decreases in the fraction of viral DNAs with complete (consensus) ends and significant increases in the insertion of part or all of the PPT at the 2-LTR circle junctions. The last two nucleotides in the 3′ end of the RSV PPT are GA. Examination of the (mis)cleavages of the alternate PPTs revealed preferential cleavages after GA dinucleotide sequences. Replacement of the terminal 3′ A of the RSV PPT with G caused a preferential miscleavage at a GA sequence spanning the PPT-U3 boundary, resulting in the deletion of the terminal adenine normally present at the 5′ end of the U3. A reciprocal G-to-A substitution at the 3′ end of the murine leukemia virus PPT increased the relative titer of the chimeric RSV-based virus and the fraction of consensus 2-LTR circle junctions