Optimization of thresholds to detect differentially expressed genes for integrative analysis of miRNA and mRNA

Abstract

Micro RNAs (miRNAs) control mRNAs. Because only a few analyses treated them simultaneously, we proposed an integrative analysis of expression levels of both miRNAs and mRNAs. This method detected miRNAs and mRNAs whose expression levels changed markedly; miRNAs were detected based on expression ratio while mRNAs were detected by t test. The functions of the mRNAs regulated by a miRNA were investigated. The results of the analysis, however, were influenced by the setting of thresholds on detection. In this study, the thresholds were optimized using two datasets. The results revealed that a ratio of 1.5 (miRNAs) and p = 0.01 (mRNAs) were the optimum for the datasets.