[BioC] Extremely low p-values in limma

Muller, Pie Pie.Muller at liverpool.ac.uk
Tue Sep 18 11:28:40 CEST 2007


Dear Naomi,

I have attached a graphical representation of our experimental design in a jpg image to give you a quick idea. In our experiments the "targets" look as follows:

File		Cy3	Cy5

File1		A1	C2
File2		A1	B1
File3		A2	C3
File4		A2	B2
File5		A3	C4
File6		A3	B3
File7		A4	C5
File8		A4	B4
File9		A5	C1
File10	A5	B5
File11	B1	A3
File12	B1	C1
File13	B2	C2
File14	B2	A4
File15	B3	C3
File16	B3	A5
File17	B4	C4
File18	B4	A1
File19	B5	C5
File20	B5	A2
File21	C1	A2
File22	C1	B3
File23	C2	A3
File24	C2	B4
File25	C3	A4
File26	C3	B5
File27	C4	A5
File28	C4	B1
File29	C5	A1
File30	C5	B2


If limma cannot handle the above structure would "maanova" be a suitable package for the analysis of this type of experiment?

Best,
Pie




-----Original Message-----
From: Naomi Altman [mailto:naomi at stat.psu.edu] 
Sent: 17 September 2007 20:44
To: Muller, Pie; Naomi Altman; bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [BioC] Extremely low p-values in limma

Pie,

I do not recall all the examples but you have:

2 color arrays - hence correlation on the same array
4 technical reps - hence correlation on the same biological replicates

I did not check your code before, but I think 
that you need to show what is in "targets" for me to help you more.

I think that to handle this analysis, you need to 
use single channel analysis.  But then you have 2 
sources of dependence, and limma cannot handle this.

--Naomi

At 10:16 AM 9/17/2007, Muller, Pie wrote:
>Naomi,
>
>Thank you very much for your reply, the p-values 
>seem to make much more sense now although I am 
>still slightly confused. I tried to follow 
>Example 8.2 of the Limma User's Guide by taking 
>into account that RNA from each individual 
>(e.g., "A1") appeared on four arrays. Why would 
>my previous experimental design not follow the same logic as in example 8.2?
>
>Apologies for coming back on this...
>
>Thanks,
>Pie
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Naomi Altman [mailto:naomi at stat.psu.edu]
>Sent: 17 September 2007 14:32
>To: Muller, Pie; bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
>Subject: Re: [BioC] Extremely low p-values in limma
>
>Yes, your code is treating the technical
>replicates as if they were the biological
>replicates and the biological replicates as if
>they were different treatments.  This is because
>A1 and A2 are each given a factor.  You need to
>rename all of the A's with the name "A", similarly for the Bs and Cs.
>
>--Naomi
>
>At 06:13 AM 9/17/2007, Muller, Pie wrote:
> >Dear all
> >
> >I am analysing data obtained from an experiment
> >with an interwoven loop design using limma. The
> >design and the code are listed below. Many of
> >our probes show extremely low adjusted p-values
> >with values low as 1.748434e-71. Hence, I was
> >wondering whether my code somehow treats
> >technical replication as independent ones, or
> >whether such low p-values could be genuine. Has anyone any ideas?
> >
> >Many thanks for your suggestions!
> >
> >Pie
> >
> >
> >My experimental design:
> >
> >We have 3 groups, A, B and C with 5 biological
> >(independent) replicates for each group (15 RNA
> >targets in total). The RNA's were co-hybridised
> >to a two colour array whereby each target was
> >twice labelled with Cy3 and twice with Cy5 in the following way:
> >
> >File            Cy3     Cy5
> >
> >File1           A1      C2
> >File2           A1      B1
> >File3           A2      C3
> >File4           A2      B2
> >File5           A3      C4
> >File6           A3      B3
> >File7           A4      C5
> >File8           A4      B4
> >File9           A5      C1
> >File10  A5      B5
> >File11  B1      A3
> >File12  B1      C1
> >File13  B2      C2
> >File14  B2      A4
> >File15  B3      C3
> >File16  B3      A5
> >File17  B4      C4
> >File18  B4      A1
> >File19  B5      C5
> >File20  B5      A2
> >File21  C1      A2
> >File22  C1      B3
> >File23  C2      A3
> >File24  C2      B4
> >File25  C3      A4
> >File26  C3      B5
> >File27  C4      A5
> >File28  C4      B1
> >File29  C5      A1
> >File30  C5      B2
> >
> >
> >My code for fitting the linear model:
> >
> >design=modelMatrix(targets, ref="A1")
> >cor=duplicateCorrelation(MA, design, ndups=4, spacing=1, weights=w)
> >fit=lmFit(MA, cor=cor$consensus.correlation,
> >design, ndups=4, spacing=1, weights=w)
> >cont.matrix=makeContrasts(AvsB=(A2+A3+A4+A5-B1-B2-B3-B4-B5)/5,
> >AvsC=(A2+A3+A4+A5-C1-C2-C3-C4-C5)/5,
> >CvsB=(C1+C2+C3+C4+C5-B1-B2-B3-B4-B5)/5, levels=design)
> >fit2=contrasts.fit(fit, cont.matrix)
> >fit2=eBayes(fit2)
> >topTable(fit2, coef="AvsB", adjust.method="fdr", sort.by="p")
> >
> >
> >-------------------------------------
> >
> >Dr Pie Müller
> >Vector Group
> >Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
> >Pembroke Place
> >Liverpool
> >L3 5QA
> >UK
> >
> >Tel +44(0) 151 705 3225
> >Fax +44(0) 151 705 3369
> >
> >http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm
> >http://www.ivcc.com
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Bioconductor mailing list
> >Bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor
> >Search the archives:
> >http://news.gmane.org/gmane.science.biology.informatics.conductor
>
>Naomi S. Altman                                814-865-3791 (voice)
>Associate Professor
>Dept. of Statistics                              814-863-7114 (fax)
>Penn State University                         814-865-1348 (Statistics)
>University Park, PA 16802-2111
>
>_______________________________________________
>Bioconductor mailing list
>Bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor
>Search the archives: 
>http://news.gmane.org/gmane.science.biology.informatics.conductor

Naomi S. Altman                                814-865-3791 (voice)
Associate Professor
Dept. of Statistics                              814-863-7114 (fax)
Penn State University                         814-865-1348 (Statistics)
University Park, PA 16802-2111



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