Among all 237 patients, there was variability in expression shifts of genes expressed in the basal layer (ITGA6, KRT5, KRT14), granular layer and cornified envelope (IVL, LOR, FLG), and early KC differentiation genes (KRT1, KRT10, DSG1, DSC1) (Additional file 7).
This was expected, based upon previously published work showing gene-to-gene variability in expression patterns, even within monoallelically expressed gene clusters.
Genes that are highly expressed and that exhibit high variability in expression have a high probability of correlating positively with RT PCR data.
However, P. falciparum offers unique challenges in data analysis due to stochastic variability in expression of some gene products, such as variable erythrocyte surface proteins.
This is because many important transcription factors or genes involved in signaling transduction are expressed at low level and do not necessarily have high variability in expression [ 17– 17].
Interindividual variability in expression of these isoforms would cause interindividual differences in drug response, toxicity and cancer susceptibility.
In practice, the sources of background variability in expression data can be divided into three categories: technical, physiological, and sampling.
This microscopy-based method has often revealed a high cell-to-cell variability in expression levels, which has in turn led to a growing interest in investigating the biological significance of gene expression noise.
In humans, CNVs have been shown to underlie variability in expression [22] and complex traits [23].
Such variability in expression might help to identify individuals at risk for developing PTDM.
