TREAT function - how to interpret the result
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Sanches • 0
@sanches-13853
Last seen 6.7 years ago

Hello everyone, 

I am so sorry for asking help for a basic issue.

So, I have used TREAT function to test for the differential expression of genes.  For example, is it correct to use logFC to compare the relative expression between ADAM8 and SLC25A27? As you can see below,  ADAM8  is the ranked but it has smaller logFC. So, in this case, what could do?

Thanks in advance

 

ENTREZID SYMBOL UNIPROT logFC AveExpr t        P.Value
101 ADAM8 P78325 4.145521092163   8.67707140673464           26.5515520677772        6.92389718357961e-09
587 BCAT2 O15382 4.53846888171869  8.92879466212405 24.8502028681871 1.13492312522918e-08
6591 SNAI2 O43623 4.25097730022446  8.81891453855237 23.1172960098245 1.90935989746792e-08
9481 SLC25A27 B4DHR4 5.60733023152463  11.2411231360327 23.0872979003407 2.00545074568876e-08
27240 SIT1 Q9Y3P8 3.60236159436291   8.06007485742637 17.2725187626978 1.56307173434009e-07
7965 AIMP2 A0A024QZY1    3.76550433124359    9.60469812523139 17.2108174737464 1.60920592666298e-07
limma treat • 1.3k views
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Entering edit mode
@gordon-smyth
Last seen 41 minutes ago
WEHI, Melbourne, Australia

Please do not reorder the genes by fold change. The genes have already been ordered by likely biological importance according to the treat approach.

Fold change is not the only consideration when judging significance or importance. One also has to take into account the consistency of the results across replicates. In your table, SLC25A27 has a higher fold change than ADAM8 but it is also shows more variability between replicates than ADAM8 and hence ends up with a slightly lower t-statistic. ADAM8 has a slightly lower fold change but shows clearer separation of expression between the groups.

The whole purpose of limma is to combine fold change and variability into a combination ranking of statistical significance and potential biological importance. If you reorder the results by fold change then you prevent limma from doing its job. I think that ignoring variability and just using fold change alone is unwise.

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Entering edit mode

Dear Gordon, 

Thanks for your reply. 

You have just helped me to clarify the result in mine mind.  

Thanks

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