Expression quantitative trait loci and the PhenoGen database

Abstract

Researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds and with a broad range of goals have utilized high-throughput screening technologies (i.e., microarray technologies) to identify candidate genes that may be associated with an observable characteristic or behavior (i.e., phenotype) of interest. However, the initial microarray analyses typically also yield many genes that are not related to the phenotype of interest. Therefore, additional analyses are necessary to select the most likely candidates and eventually identify one or more genes that actually underlie that phenotype. After briefly explaining how microarray data are generated, this article describes one approach to narrowing down the resulting candidate genes and a database that can help in this analysis.