Donuts, scratches and blanks: Robust model-based segmentation of microarray images

Motivation: Inner holes, artifacts and blank spots are common in microarray images, but current image analysis methods do not pay them enough attention. We propose a new robust model-based method for processing microarray images so as to estimate foreground and background intensities. The method starts with a very simple but effective automatic gridding method, and then proceeds in two steps. The first step applies model-based clustering to the distribution of pixel intensities, using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to choose the number of groups up to a maximum of three. The second step is spatial, finding the large spatially connected components in each cluster of pixels. The method thus combines the strengths of the histogram-based and spatial approaches. It deals effectively with inner holes in spots and with artifacts. It also provides a formal inferential basis for deciding when the spot is blank, namely when the BIC favors one group over two or three. Results: We apply our methods for gridding and segmentation to cDNA microarray images from an HIV infection experiment. In these experiments, our method had better stability across replicates than a fixed-circle segmentation method or the seeded region growing method in the SPOT software, without introducing noticeable bias when estimating the intensities of differentially expressed gene.