1. Background
  2. Data Collection Methods
  3. Data Quality Control
  4. Summary

A pigment gene is influenced by temperature.
Image source: Lobo (2008) Figure 1.

Why is Gene Expression Important?

  1. Within an organism, different gene expression profiles can be observed for different tissues; developmental stages; and in response to external stimuli such as the environment or chemical exposure (Qian et al., 2014, Garcia-Reyero et al. 2009a and 2009b).
  2. Alterations in gene expression have been associated with adverse health effects (Stegle et al., 2015)
  3. Given a disease state, correlating changes in gene expression with functional proteins can aid drug discovery by identifying protein targets (Friend and Stoughton, 2002).

    4. Understanding differences in gene expression provides insight into protein regulation, the relationship between genotype and phenotype, and ultimately health effects, both good and bad (Qian et al., 2014).