Merging microarray cell synchronization experiments through curve alignment

The validity of periodic cell cycle regulation studies in plants is seriously compromised by the relatively poor quality of cell synchrony that is achieved for plant suspension cultures in comparison to yeast and mammals. The present state-of-the-art plant synchronization techniques cannot offer a complete cell cycle coverage and moreover a considerable loss of cell synchrony may occur toward the end of the sampling. One possible solution is to consider combining multiple datasets, produced by different synchronization techniques and thus covering different phases of the cell cycle, in order to arrive at a better cell cycle coverage.