Confusion for choosing package for microarray data analysis
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Yi Zou ▴ 60
@yi-zou-662
Last seen 10.2 years ago
Dear list members, I'm just starting using R to analyze my cDNA microarray data. After a few days experience, I found there are so many different packages available like marray, limma, sma, com.braju.sma, siggenes...etc. Some of them have many functions doing the same work, and definitely each package may provide its specific functions. So, I'm a little confused for choosing these packages firstly for my following analysis. Hopefully experienced members can give me a short answer for these two questions: 1) Do I have to use these packages together, or just choose one that I feel comfortable? 2) Can somebody give me a short comparison for those most commonly used packages like limma, marray, sma..., especially give me a introduction for those specific functions in a package which are not provided in other packages? Then I know which package I should choose at beginning. Any answers and suggestions is appreciated Yi
Microarray limma siggenes marray Microarray limma siggenes marray • 1.2k views
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@vincent-j-carey-jr-4
Last seen 9 weeks ago
United States
> > I'm just starting using R to analyze my cDNA microarray data. After a > few days experience, I found there are so many different packages > available like marray, limma, sma, com.braju.sma, siggenes...etc. Some > of them have many functions doing the same work, and definitely each > package may provide its specific functions. So, I'm a little confused > for choosing these packages firstly for my following analysis. Hopefully > experienced members can give me a short answer for these two questions: > > 1) Do I have to use these packages together, or just choose one that I > feel comfortable? Oftentimes you will need to use several packages to carry a satisfactory analysis. The organization of software into packages is a source of both complexity and flexibility. A virtue of the package-based design is that it makes it easier for users to define their own preferred analysis sequences. A cost of the package-based design is that users have to remember both the substantive functions and the technical organization of functions into packages. The help.search function of R can often help in locating a package that addresses a particular problem. > > 2) Can somebody give me a short comparison for those most commonly used > packages like limma, marray, sma..., especially give me a introduction > for those specific functions in a package which are not provided in > other packages? Then I know which package I should choose at beginning. This is a fair question but it will take considerable work to answer. We have started on a topical description of packages to replace the current alphabetic list. The tasks of defining a partition of packages across topics, and of eliminating all functional redundancies among packages, will probably never be completed. Some very basic functions that many packages need to use are placed in package Biobase. This is one effort to reduce redundancies. Task-oriented documentation is provided in vignettes that are available with each package: see the first entry in the Documentation element of the www.bioconductor.org webpage sidebar. the vExplorer function of tkWidgets allows you to step through the computations described in a vignette.
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@christopher-wilkinson-309
Last seen 10.2 years ago
Hi Yi, I'd suggest using either limma or the marray packages for reading in data, normalising and visualising. There is a lot of overlap between these two packages so either should be satisfactory. When it comes to assessing differentially expressed genes, you can use limma (linear modelling approach), siggenes (implements SAM) or whatever else you think is appropriate. My understanding is that sma was developed prior to Bioconductor (and com.braju.sma is a variant of sma developed using a different object oriented approach), and development of sma stopped when Bioconductor was put together. I think both the marray packages and limma were developed using sma as a basis. I use limma since I'm interested in using the linear modelling approach, I think it has good help, and is undergoing active development. However I occasionally use functions in the marray packages, or more often write my own code to do what I want. As you get started I'd suggest that its well worth having a good look at the documentation and browsing through the package description. When you start the help (html help menu in windows RGui or start.help() in linux) goto the package section and click on limma. Read the overview carefully which explains how to do various things in limma. Then look over the Introduction, classes, reading data, normalisation, linear models and diagnostics section. From there just browse through different functions to see what they do. I also find its worth having a look through the R code for limma and marray packages. You can see how things are done and it gives you ideas on how to write your own functions. Both limma and marray packages contain references to papers regarding normalisation and statistical issues in microarray analysis which you might also want to look at. You might also want to have a look at http://www.statsci.org/micrarra/refs.html Cheers Chris Dr Chris Wilkinson Research Officer (Bioinformatics) | Visiting Research Fellow Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) | Microarray Analysis Group 7th floor, Clarence Rieger Building | Room 121 Women's and Children's Hospital | School of Applied Mathematics 72 King William Rd, North Adelaide, 5006 | The University of Adelaide, 5005 Math's Office (Room 121) Ph: 8303 3714 CHRI Office (CR2 52A) Ph: 8161 6363 Christopher.Wilkinson@adelaide.edu.au http://mag.maths.adelaide.edu.au/crwilkinson.html > > From: Yi Zou <yzou1971@netscape.net> > Subject: [BioC] Confusion for choosing package for microarray data > analysis > To: bioconductor@stat.math.ethz.ch > Message-ID: <40563DE5.1050000@netscape.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > > Dear list members, > > I'm just starting using R to analyze my cDNA microarray data. After a > few days experience, I found there are so many different packages > available like marray, limma, sma, com.braju.sma, siggenes...etc. Some > of them have many functions doing the same work, and definitely each > package may provide its specific functions. So, I'm a little confused > for choosing these packages firstly for my following analysis. Hopefully > experienced members can give me a short answer for these two questions: > > 1) Do I have to use these packages together, or just choose one that I > feel comfortable? > > 2) Can somebody give me a short comparison for those most commonly used > packages like limma, marray, sma..., especially give me a introduction > for those specific functions in a package which are not provided in > other packages? Then I know which package I should choose at beginning. > > Any answers and suggestions is appreciated > > Yi
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Hi Chris, Thanks so much for you, Gordon, Sean and other member's patient answer, it's very clear to me know. Your suggestions is very useful to the R beginner like me. Cheers Yi Christopher.Wilkinson@adelaide.edu.au wrote: >Hi Yi, > >I'd suggest using either limma or the marray packages for reading in data, >normalising and visualising. There is a lot of overlap between these two >packages so either should be satisfactory. When it comes to assessing >differentially expressed genes, you can use limma (linear modelling >approach), siggenes (implements SAM) or whatever else you think is >appropriate. > >My understanding is that sma was developed prior to Bioconductor (and >com.braju.sma is a variant of sma developed using a different object >oriented approach), and development of sma stopped when Bioconductor was put >together. I think both the marray packages and limma were developed using >sma as a basis. > >I use limma since I'm interested in using the linear modelling approach, I >think it has good help, and is undergoing active development. However I >occasionally use functions in the marray packages, or more often write my >own code to do what I want. > >As you get started I'd suggest that its well worth having a good look at the >documentation and browsing through the package description. When you start >the help (html help menu in windows RGui or start.help() in linux) goto the >package section and click on limma. > >Read the overview carefully which explains how to do various things in >limma. >Then look over the Introduction, classes, reading data, normalisation, >linear models and diagnostics section. From there just browse through >different functions to see what they do. I also find its worth having a >look through the R code for limma and marray packages. You can see how >things are done and it gives you ideas on how to write your own functions. > >Both limma and marray packages contain references to papers regarding >normalisation and statistical issues in microarray analysis which you might >also want to look at. >You might also want to have a look at >http://www.statsci.org/micrarra/refs.html > >Cheers >Chris > >Dr Chris Wilkinson > >Research Officer (Bioinformatics) | Visiting Research Fellow >Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) | Microarray Analysis Group >7th floor, Clarence Rieger Building | Room 121 >Women's and Children's Hospital | School of Applied Mathematics >72 King William Rd, North Adelaide, 5006 | The University of Adelaide, 5005 > >Math's Office (Room 121) Ph: 8303 3714 >CHRI Office (CR2 52A) Ph: 8161 6363 > >Christopher.Wilkinson@adelaide.edu.au > >http://mag.maths.adelaide.edu.au/crwilkinson.html > > > >>From: Yi Zou <yzou1971@netscape.net> >>Subject: [BioC] Confusion for choosing package for microarray data >> analysis >>To: bioconductor@stat.math.ethz.ch >>Message-ID: <40563DE5.1050000@netscape.net> >>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed >> >>Dear list members, >> >>I'm just starting using R to analyze my cDNA microarray data. After a >>few days experience, I found there are so many different packages >>available like marray, limma, sma, com.braju.sma, siggenes...etc. Some >>of them have many functions doing the same work, and definitely each >>package may provide its specific functions. So, I'm a little confused >>for choosing these packages firstly for my following analysis. Hopefully >>experienced members can give me a short answer for these two questions: >> >>1) Do I have to use these packages together, or just choose one that I >>feel comfortable? >> >>2) Can somebody give me a short comparison for those most commonly used >>packages like limma, marray, sma..., especially give me a introduction >>for those specific functions in a package which are not provided in >>other packages? Then I know which package I should choose at beginning. >> >>Any answers and suggestions is appreciated >> >>Yi >> >> > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
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