Gene Expression Data Analysis Suite (GEDAS)
Box-Whisker plot
· Description or interpretation: The Box-Whisker plot is very useful in the pre-interpretive analysis of gene expression data. This visualization is very handy in dealing with raw and pre-processed gene expression data. The plot provides information on the overall over and under expression along with mean, upper and lower quartile together in one plot. It can, in many cases, be applied to reduced or transformed datasets with large number of insignificant genes and samples removed, as given in following figure.
· Complexity: The plot requires computations of complexity O (n2).
· Special considerations/features: The colour variation could be introduced for different samples, upper and lower quartile variation.
· Advantages and drawbacks: The mean, median as well as upper and lower quartile can be viewed simultaneously in the plot.
· Applicability: This plot is useful
mostly for preliminary analysis as well as in some cases when a number of genes
and/or samples have been eliminated, causing a change in the mean and other
parameters.
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Figure: The Box-Whisker plot
provides most of the statistics in one graph covering maximum, minimum,
median, upper quartile and the lower quartile |
