A Gene Expression Map for Caenorhabditis elegans

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 293; no. 5537; pp. 2087 - 2092
• Main Authors: Kim, Stuart K., Lund, Jim, Kiraly, Moni, Duke, Kyle, Jiang, Min, Stuart, Joshua M., Eizinger, Andreas, Wylie, Brian N., Davidson, George S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 14.09.2001; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans - physiology; Chromosome mapping; Computational Biology; Correlation; Databases, Factual; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Developmental stages; DNA; DNA microarrays; DNA Transposable Elements; DNA, Complementary; Female; Freshwater; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Genes, Helminth; Genetic mapping; Genetic research; Genetics; Genome; Genomes; Genomics; Germ cells; Growth conditions; Helminth Proteins - biosynthesis; Helminth Proteins - genetics; Intestines; Intestines - physiology; Male; Meiosis; Mitosis; Molecular and cellular biology; Mountains; Muscles - physiology; Mutation; Neurons - physiology; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Oocytes - physiology; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Profiles; Protein research; RNA; RNA, Helminth - genetics; Software; Spermatozoa; Spermatozoa - physiology; Statistics; Transposons; WORM; United States
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1061603

We have assembled data from Caenorhabditis elegans DNA microarray experiments involving many growth conditions, developmental stages, and varieties of mutants. Co-regulated genes were grouped together and visualized in a three-dimensional expression map that displays correlations of gene expression profiles as distances in two dimensions and gene density in the third dimension. The gene expression map can be used as a gene discovery tool to identify genes that are co-regulated with known sets of genes (such as heat shock, growth control genes, germ line genes, and so forth) or to uncover previously unknown genetic functions (such as genomic instability in males and sperm caused by specific transposons).