The effects of cell asynchrony on time-series data: an analysis on gene expression level of Plasmodium falciparum

To investigate the intraerythrocytic cycle of Plasmodium falciparum, time-series gene expression data are measured of infected red blood cells. However, the observed data is blurred due to cell asynchrony during experiments. In this paper, the effects of cell asynchrony are investigated by conducting numerical experiments. The simulation results suggest that cell asynchrony has varying effects on different intrinsic expression patterns. Specifically, the intrinsic patterns with high expression around the late life stage are more likely to be affected by cell asynchrony. It is also investigated how the effects of cell asynchrony are influenced by the experimental conditions. Certain parameters are identified that have a strong effects on cell asynchrony, and these parameters should be measured during biological experiments in order to deblur time-series gene expression data.