Mapping of Affymetrix probe sets to groups of transcripts using transcriptional networks

Motivation: Usefulness of analysis derived from Affymetrix microarrays depends largely upon the reliability of files describing the correspondence between probe sets, genes and transcripts. In particular, in case a gene is targeted by two probe sets, one must be able to assess if the corresponding signals measure a group of common transcripts or two groups of transcripts with little or no overlap. Results: Probe sets that effectively target the same group of transcripts have specific properties in the trancriptional networks we constructed. We found indeed that such probe sets had a very low negative correlation, a high positive correlation and a similar neighbourhood. Taking advantage of these properties, we devised a test allowing to group probe sets which target the same group of transcripts in a particular network. By considering several networks, additional information concerning the frequency of these associations was obtained. Availability and Implementation: The programs developed in Python (PSAWNpy) and in Matlab (PSAWNml) are freely available, and can be downloaded at this http URL Tutorials and reference manuals are available at this http URL Contact: mbellis@crbm.cnrs.fr. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at this http URL