Calculation of Spot Reliability Evaluation Scores (SRED) for DNA Microarray Data

In terms of cost per measurement, the use of DNA microarrays for comprehensive and quantitative expression measurements is vastly superior to other methods such as Northern blotting or quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR). However, the output values of DNA microarrays are not always highly reliable or accurate compared with other techniques, and the output data sometimes consist of measurements of relative expression (treated sample vs. untreated) rather than absolute expression values as desired. In effect, some measurements from some laboratories do not represent absolute expression values (such as the number of transcripts) and as such are experimentally deficient. This protocol addresses one problem in some microarray data: the absence of accurate measurements. Spot reliability evaluation score for DNA microarrays (SRED) offers a reliability value for each spot in the microarray. SRED does not require an entire microarray to assess the reliability, but rather analyzes the reliability of individual spots of the microarray. The calculation of a reliability index can be used for different microarray systems, which facilitates the analysis of multiple microarray data sets from different experimental platforms.