Scatter search-based identification of local patterns with positive and negative correlations in gene expression data

•Biclustering of gene expression data.•Scatter search metaheuristic.•Correlation-based merit function.•Positive and negative correlations among genes.•Comparison is based on a priori biological information.

This paper presents a scatter search approach based on linear correlations among genes to find biclusters, which include both shifting and scaling patterns and negatively correlated patterns contrarily to most of correlation-based algorithms published in the literature. The methodology established here for comparison is based on a priori biological information stored in the well-known repository Gene Ontology (GO). In particular, the three existing categories in GO, Biological Process, Cellular Components and Molecular Function, have been used. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been compared to other benchmark biclustering algorithms, specifically a group of classical biclustering algorithms and two algorithms that use correlation-based merit functions. The proposed algorithm outperforms the benchmark algorithms and finds patterns based on negative correlations. Although these patterns contain important relationship among genes, they are not found by most of biclustering algorithms. The experimental study also shows the importance of the size in a bicluster in addition to the value of its correlation. In particular, the size of a bicluster has an influence over its enrichment in a GO term.

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