A new method for circadian gene identification using order restricted inference

Abstract

Identification of periodic patterns in gene expression data is important for studying the regulation mechanism of the circadian system. However, the information available is often given by one or two cycles. Consequently, the number of observations is not enough to fit certain models, such as Fourier´s models. Some authors have yet developed procedures or algorithms among which is the JTK_Cycle Algorithm.

We propose a new method to address this question based on order restricted inference. Which allows to determine, in terms of an euclidean or circular order, if the gene expression given is or not cyclic.

Validation of the method is made by evaluating of real data sets and simulations. Moreover, we compare the results obtained by the method with others detecting methods developed in the literature, mainly with the JTK_Cycle Algorithm.