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bioRxiv · 10.1101/393991

New Statistical Methods for Constructing Robust Differential Correlation Networks

Yu, D.·Zhang, Z.·Glass, K.·Su, J.·DeMeo, D. L.·Tantisira, K.·Weiss, S. T.·Qiu, W.
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Abstract

The interplay among microRNAs (miRNAs) plays an important role in the developments of complex human diseases. Co-expression networks can characterize the interactions among miRNAs. Differential correlation network is a powerful tool to investigate the differences of co-expression networks between cases and controls. To construct a differential correlation network, the Fishers Z-transformation test is usually used. However, the Fishers Z-transformation test requires the normality assumption, the violation of which would result in inflated Type I error rate. Several bootstrapping-based improvements for Fishers Z test have been proposed. However, these methods are too computationally intensive to be used to construct differential correlation networks for high-throughput genomic data. In this article, we proposed six novel robust equal-correlation tests that are computationally efficient. The systematic simulation studies and a real microRNA data analysis showed that one of the six proposed tests (ST5) overall performed better than other methods.

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Yu, D., Zhang, Z., Glass, K., Su, J., DeMeo, D. L., Tantisira, K., Weiss, S. T., Qiu, W.. 2018-08-17. New Statistical Methods for Constructing Robust Differential Correlation Networks. https://doi.org/10.1101/393991

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