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A t-test provides a p value of 0.05 for gene A and a p value of 0.01 for gene B being difierentially expressed between conditions X and Y.

Which of the two gene do you think is more likely to be truly differentially expressed?
why?

User Phicon
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Gene B, with a p-value of 0.01, is more likely to be truly differentially expressed compared to gene A with a p-value of 0.05 since a smaller p-value indicates stronger evidence against the null hypothesis at a typical alpha level of 0.05.

Step-by-step explanation:

When comparing the p-values of two genes to determine which is more likely to be truly differentially expressed between two conditions, the smaller p-value usually indicates a stronger evidence against the null hypothesis. Here, gene A has a p-value of 0.05, and gene B has a p-value of 0.01. Assuming a significance level (alpha, α) of 0.05, for gene A, the p-value equals the α, which suggests marginal evidence against the null hypothesis, while for gene B, the p-value is well below α, indicating stronger evidence against the null hypothesis.

Therefore, gene B is more likely to be truly differentially expressed since its p-value is smaller, implying a more statistically significant difference between conditions X and Y. In scientific research, especially when examining gene expression, a lower p-value generally increases our confidence that the observed effect is not due to random chance.

User Andrew  Nexintong
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