It is always interesting to identify a set of genes that belong to a pathway and working out relationships between them. Previously clustering algorithms and network models were being used to identify genes related to a common pathways.Recently Haiyan Huang etal.(2012) have developed a new method to identify genes based on calculation of the partial corerelation between genes of a common pathway.In their research article they have given a brief description of the mathematical and statistical approach used by them followed by the computer simulation to prove the validity of their calculations. They have also applied their approach to real data from Arabidopsis genome under four different conditions of environmental stresses namely- oxidation,wounding, UV light and drought.
Reference:Using biologically interrelated experiments to identify pathway genes in Arabidopsis.Huang etal.2012, Bioinformatics 28(6)815-822.