An Inference Methodology for Selecting and Clustering Genes Based on Likelihood Ratio Test

Abstract

Peddada et al. (Gene selected and clustering for time-course and close-response microarray experiments using order-restricted inference, Bioinformatics 19 (2003): 834–841) proposed a new method for selecting and clustering genes according to their time-course or dose-response profiles. Their method necessitates the assumption of a constant variance through time or among dosages. This homoscedasticity assumption is, however, seldom satisfied in practice. In this paper, via the application of Shi’s algorithms and a modified bootstrap procedure (N. Z. Shi, Maximum likelihood estimation of means and variances from normal populations under simulations order restrictions (J. Multivariate Anal. 50 (1994) 282–293), we proposed a generalized order-restricted inference method which releases the homoscedasticity restriction. Simulation results show that procedures considered in this paper as well as those by Peddada et al. (Gene selected and clustering for time-course and close-response microarray experiments using order-restricted inference, Bioinformatics 19 (2003) 834–841) are generally comparable in terms of Type I error rate while our proposed algorithms are usually more powerful.