Stochastic resonance reveals "pilot light" expression in mammalian genes.
BACKGROUND
Microarrays are widely used for estimation of expression of thousands of genes in a biological sample. The resolution ability of this method is limited by the background noise. Low expressed genes are detected with insufficient reliability and expression of many genes is never detected at all.


RESULTS
We have applied the principles of stochastic resonance to detect expression of genes from microarray signals below the background noise level. We report the periodic pattern detected in genes called "Absent" by traditional analysis. The pattern is consistent with expression of the conventionally detected genes and specific to the tissue of origin. This effect is corroborated by the analysis of oscillating gene expression in mouse (M. musculus) and yeast (S. cerevisae).


CONCLUSIONS
Most genes usually considered silent are in fact expressed at a very low level. Stochastic resonance can be applied to detect changes in expression pattern of low-expressed genes as well as for the validation of the probe performance in microarrays.
Ptitsyn
Andrey
A
Center for Bioinformatics, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America. Andrey.Ptitsyn@colostate.edu
D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D013269:Stochastic Processes