Microarrays Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Microarrays, including details on experiments, designs, statistics, analysis, software.

Identification of genes required for cellulose synthesis by regression analysis of public microarray data sets.

Persson S, Wei H, Milne J, Page GP, Somerville CR

Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

Coexpression patterns of gene expression across many microarray data sets may reveal networks of genes involved in linked processes. To identify factors involved in cellulose biosynthesis, we used a regression method to analyze 408 publicly available Affymetrix Arabidopsis microarrays. Expression of genes previously implicated in cellulose synthesis, as well as several uncharacterized genes, was highly coregulated with expression of cellulose synthase (CESA) genes. Four candidate genes, which were coexpressed with CESA genes implicated in secondary cell wall synthesis, were investigated by mutant analysis. Two mutants exhibited irregular xylem phenotypes similar to those observed in mutants with defects in secondary cellulose synthesis and were designated irx8 and irx13. Thus, the general approach developed here is useful for identification of elements of multicomponent processes.

Published 15 June 2005 in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 102(24): 8633-8.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Microarrays Research Today. All Rights Reserved.