A new algorithm for the simulation of sodium dodecil sulfate two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis data sets

A new algorithm for generating simulated sodium dodecil sulfate two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS 2D-PAGE) map images was developed. To choose the simulation strategy able to provide realistic 2D-PAGE maps, several parameters that characterize the statistical features of the images and data sets of images were taken into account, such as the distribution of size, intensity, and volume of the spots and their changes of position and volume along different replications of the same 2D-PAGE map. In this way, also the low reproducibility of replications of the same SDS 2D-PAGE maps was taken into account. The present algorithm can be usefully employed for the development of new classification and/or image analysis algorithms applied to bidimensional electrophoretic data sets, given the usually small number of experimental replications available.