Gene expression profiling of mammary gland development reveals putative roles for death receptors and immune mediators in post-lactational regression

Table 2 The relationship between gene expression pattern and gene function in the seven-point lactation/involution time course

Cluster	Transcripts	Biological process	Molecular function
Inv1	292	Transport	Immunity
		Cell surface signal	Enzyme
		Intracellular signal	Structural
			Growth factors
Inv2	153	Transport	Enzyme
Inv3	336	Biogenesis	Apoptosis
		Metabolism	Enzyme
		Development	Nucleic acid
			Signal transducer
			Structural
Inv4	420	Cell adhesion	Apoptosis
		Cell surface signal	Immuntiy
		ECM and morphogenesis	Enzyme
			Signal transducer
			Structural
			Cytokine
Lac1	374	Intracellular signal
Lac2	163	Biogenesis	Enzyme
		Metabolism	Nucleic acid
		Transport	Transport
		ECM and Morphogenesis
Lac3	188	Cell adhesion	Signal transducer
		Transport	Transport
		Development	Cytokine
			Growth factors

Transcripts representing genes with known function were classified by molecular function and biological process, according to the ontological definitions of the Gene Ontology Consortium. The total numbers of known transcripts classified in this way are shown for each cluster. A statistical test for nonrandom distribution of these functional groups (taking into account the total number of transcripts in each category) was performed on each cluster using Onto-Express. All statistically significant associations (corrected P < 0.05) are listed for each cluster using the same ontological definitions used in Table 1 and available on GeNet. Additional information on the details of these significant associations and a graphical representation of all ontologies are available as Additional files 2 and 5. ECM, extracellular matrix.

ISSN: 1465-542X