Title: Strategies for enhanced annotation of a microarray probe set

Authors: TuShun R. Powers, Selene M. Virk, Elba E. Serrano

Addresses: Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. ' Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. ' Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA

Abstract: We aim to determine the biological relevance of genes identified through microarray-mediated transcriptional profiling of Xenopus sensory organs and brain. Difficulties with genetic data analysis arise because of limitations in probe set annotation and the lack of a universal gene nomenclature. To overcome these impediments, we used sequence based and semantic linking methods in combination with computational approaches to augment probe set annotation on a commercially available microarray. Our curation efforts enabled linkage of probe sets and expression data to public databases, increased the biological significance of our microarray data, and assisted with the tentative identification of unidentified probe sets.

Keywords: bioinformatics; data mining; gene identification; inner ear; mechanosensory hair cells; enhanced annotation; microarray probe set; transcriptional profiling; sensory organs; brain; semantic linking; gene sequences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBRA.2010.032119

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications, 2010 Vol.6 No.2, pp.163 - 178

Published online: 10 Mar 2010 *

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