Fig. 1

An example for two linked charts, based on a study by Conway et al. [15] comparing cancerous and normal tissues from 19 patients. The MA plot (A) shows all genes with their average expression on the X-axis and log\(_2\)-fold change between tumor and normal on the Y-axis. Red indicates genes where the difference was reported as significant by the “voom” method [18]. The plot to the right (B) shows, for one selected gene (here, LAMB4), the individual expression values (as counts per million, CPM) for each sample. This figure is a screenshot of a LinkedCharts app, the live version of which is provided in the supplement (as Interactive Supplementary Fig. 1): When the user clicks on any point in the MA plot (A), the expression plot (B) changes, showing the selected gene. Thus, one can rapidly gain an impression of the details hidden in a summarizing plot like the MA plot