The "patholog" of the gene expression profile in evaluating the ecotoxins effects

The "spotting" microarray technique, consisting in large sets of DNA sequences spotted on poly-L-lysine-coated glass microscope slides, was developed to analyze genome-wide patterns. It is a tool to quantitatively monitor gene expression profiles and to analyze the alterations produced by genetic diseases, or induced by treatments, abnormal nutrition, and toxins. The pre-Hilbert space of standard gene expression (SSGE), based on the normal variability in gene profiles of each population from the ecosystem, is introduced. In this space, every point represents a possible gene profile and every continuous curve a possible genetic evolution. The gene clusters are identified by the correlation coefficients and the prominent gene of every cluster selected from the criteria of highest connective power and smallest variability. We define the gene "patholog" as the Euclidian distance separating the representative point of the population from the unit, 0-centered hypersphere. It is the most general global quantification of the alteration in digital genes expression, suitable to evaluate the effects of various toxins at the level of any particular population. A publicly available database will be open where every experimentalist could introduce his/her results and process them according to our procedure.