Wave-SOM: A Novel Wavelet-Based Clustering Algorithm for Analysis of Gene Expression Patterns

In this paper, the authors present a wavelet-based algorithm (Wave-SOM) to help visualize and cluster oscillatory time-series data in two-dimensional gene expression micro-arrays. Using various wavelet transformations, raw data are first de-noised by decomposing the time-series into low and high frequency wavelet coefficients. Following thresholding, the coefficients are fed as an input vector into a two-dimensional Self-Organizing-Map clustering algorithm. Transformed data are then clustered by minimizing the Euclidean (L2) distance between their corresponding fluctuation patterns. A multi-resolution analysis by Wave-SOM of expression data from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, exposed to oxidative stress and glucose-limited growth, identified 29 genes with correlated expression patterns that were mapped into 5 different nodes. The ordered clustering of yeast genes by Wave-SOM illustrates that the same set of genes (encoding ribosomal proteins) can be regulated by two different environmental stresses, oxidative stress and starvation. The algorithm provides heuristic information regarding the similarity of different genes. Using previously studied expression patterns of yeast cell-cycle and functional genes as test data sets, the authors’ algorithm outperformed five other competing programs.