Question

1a) What are the differences between biological replicates and technical replicates? Explain. What are the appropriate applications for each?

1b) Explain why statistical analysis of whole genome expression data (e.g., fpkm or tpkm from RNA-seq data) require using different criteria for statistical significance between experimental and control samples than analyzing differences in expression of a single gene (e.g., ΔC_t or ΔΔC_t values from RT-qPCR) ?

1c) How have biologists addressed the concerns of part b?

Answer 1

1a) Biological replicate means samples from parallel experiments, whereas technical replicate means samples from the same experiment to show the variation, if any, and these replicates are necessary for the statistical analysis to provide the significance of the experiment. The types of replicates are very important in pharmaceutical industries for the development of drug and also applicable in toxicology and pharmacology.

1b) As mentioned above without using statistical tool we can not strongly argue on the statement and statistical analysis is warranted in biological research for said experimental procedures as mentioned above like whole genome data or qualitative RT-PCR studies. These analysis can further explain the reproducibility and variation in the data. Most common statistical analysis is student t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA)

1c) Biologist can make a statement on the basis of the data obtained from the experiments and analysis through the appropriate statistical tool and on the basis of statistics they can assume whether the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected, like any newly developed drug would be beneficial to the general population or not.