Visualization of gene expression information within the context of the mouse anatomy

Background: The eMouse Atlas of Gene Expression (EMAGE) is an online resource that publishes the results of in situ gene expression experiments on the developmental mouse. The resource provides comprehensive search facilities, but few analytical tools or visual mechanisms for navigating the data set. To deal with the missing visual navigation, this paper explores the application of sunburst and icicle visualizations within EMAGE. Results: A prototype solution delivered a simple user interface that helps the user query EMAGE and generate a sunburst/icicle diagram. An evaluation featuring test subjects from the EMAGE staff studied the visualizations and provided a range of suggested improvements. Moreover the evaluation discovered that in addition to providing a visual means of walking through the data, when grouped, the sunburst delivers an interactive overview that assists with analysing sets of related genes. Conclusions: The sunburst and icicle visualizations have been shown to be effective tools for summarising gene expression data. The sunburst with its space saving radial layout was found especially useful for providing an overview of gene families or pathways. Work is ongoing to integrate these visualizations into EMAGE.