title: Robust and tissue-independent gender-specific transcript biomarkers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Correct gender assignment in humans at the molecular level is crucial in many scientific disciplines and applied areas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Candidate gender markers were identified through supervised statistical analysis of genome wide microarray expression data from human blood samples (N = 123, 58 female, 65 male) as a training set. The potential of the markers to predict undisclosed tissue donor gender was tested on microarray data from 13 healthy and 11 cancerous human tissue collections (internal) and external datasets from samples of varying tissue origin. The abundance of some genes in the marker panel was quantified by RT-PCR as alternative analytical technology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified and qualified predictive, gender-specific transcript markers based on a set of five genes (RPS4Y1, EIF1AY, DDX3Y, KDM5D and XIST).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gene expression marker panels can be used as a robust tissue- and platform-independent predictive approach for gender determination.
authors.affiliation: Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Biomarker Development, Basel, Switzerland. Frank.Staedtler@novartis.com
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Staedtler
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Letzkus
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bongiovanni
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marc
authors.forename: Keith J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Martin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Schumacher
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D056466:Histone Demethylases / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015778:Minor Histocompatibility Antigens; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D009928:Organ Specificity; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015778:Minor Histocompatibility Antigens; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins; C077885:XIST non-coding RNA; D056466:Histone Demethylases; C095561:KDM5D protein, human; C492034:DDX3Y protein, human; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases