Assessing Differential Expression Measurements by Highly Parallel Pyrosequencing and DNA Microarrays: A Comparative Study

To explore the feasibility of pyrosequencing for quantitative differential gene expression analysis we have performed a comparative study of the results of the sequencing experiments to those obtained by a conventional DNA microarray platform. A conclusion from our analysis is that, over a threshold of 35 normalized reads per gene, the measurements of gene expression display a good correlation with the references. The observed concordance between pyrosequencing and DNA microarray platforms beyond the threshold was of 0.8, measured as a Pearson's correlation coefficient. In differential gene expression the initial aim is the quantification the differences among transcripts when comparing experimental conditions. Thus, even in a scenario of low coverage the concordance in the measurements is quite acceptable. On the other hand, the comparatively longer read size obtained by pyrosequencing allows detecting unconventional splicing forms.