The thousands of cells in a biological sample are all different and can be analyzed individually, cell by cell. Based on their gene activity, they can be sorted into clusters. But which genes are particularly characteristic of a given cluster, i.e. what are its “marker genes”? A new statistical method called Association Plot facilitates the determination and analysis of these marker genes.
Which genes are specific for a certain cell type, i.e. “mark” their identity? With the increasing size of datasets nowadays, answering this question is often challenging. Often, marker genes are simply genes that have been found in specific cell populations. However, many more genes could be characteristic of a particular cell type but remain undiscovered.
