JCD-DEA: a joint covariate detection tool for differential expression analysis on tumor expression profiles

BACKGROUND: Differential expression analysis on tumor expression profiles has always been a key issue for subsequent biological experimental validation. It is important how to select features which best discriminate between different groups of patients. Despite the emergence of multivariate analysis approaches, prevailing feature selection methods primarily focus on multiple hypothesis testing on individual variables, and then combine them for an explanatory result. Besides, these methods, which are commonly based on hypothesis testing, view classification as a posterior validation of the selected variables. RESULTS: Based on previously provided A5 feature selection strategy, we develop a joint covariate detection tool for differential expression analysis on tumor expression profiles. This software combines hypothesis testing with testing according to classification results. A model selection approach based on Gaussian mixture model is introduced in for automatic selection of features. Besides, a projection heatmap is proposed for the first time. CONCLUSIONS: Joint covariate detection strengthens the viewpoint for selecting variables which are not only individually but also jointly significant. Experiments on simulation and realistic data show the effectiveness of the developed software, which enhances the reliability of joint covariate detection for differential expression analysis on tumor expression profiles. The software is available at http://bio-nefu.com/resource/jcd-dea. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12859-019-2893-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.