Gene expression profiling of mammary gland development reveals putative roles for death receptors and immune mediators in post-lactational regression

Table 1 Relationship between gene expression pattern and gene function in the 12-point developmental time course

Cluster	Transcripts	Biological process	Molecular function
V_SL	357	Metabolism	Immunity
		Cell surface signal	Signal transducer
		Development
		ECM and morphogenesis
G	349	Cell cycle	Cell cycle
		Cell growth	Cytokine
G_SL	605	Biogenesis	Cancer
		Cell cycle	Enzyme
			Nucleic acid
			Chemokine
L_T	35	Cell adhesion	Signal transducer
		Metabolism	Transport
		Transport	Cytokine
		Cell surface signal
		Intracellular signal
L	144	Biogenesis	Cancer
		Metabolism	Transport
		Transport
		Development
		ECM and morphogenesis
L_G	83	Cell cycle	Enzyme
		Metabolism
		Development
		Physiological process
		ECM and Morphogenesis
I_L	624	Cell death	Apoptosis
		Metabolism	Immunity
		Transport	Signal transducer
		Development	Transport
		ECM and morphogenesis
I_T	245	Biogenesis	Signal transducer
		Cell cycle
		Cell growth
		Cell surface signal
		Intracellular signal
I_P	156	Biogenesis	Immunity
		Homeostasis	Signal transducer
		Transport	Transport
		Intracellular signal
I_G	582	Cell cycle	Cell cycle
		Metabolism	Transport
		Proliferation
		Transport
PC	93	Transport	Transport
		ECM and morphogenesis

Transcripts representing genes with known function were classified by molecular function and biological process, according to the ontological definitions of the Gene Ontology Consortium. The total numbers of known transcripts classified in this way are shown for each cluster. A statistical test for nonrandom distribution of these functional groups (taking into account the total number of transcripts in each category) was performed on each cluster using Onto-Express. All statistically significant associations (corrected P < 0.05) are listed for each cluster using broad ontological definitions. The genes making up these broad categories are provided on GeNet (see Method section). Additional information on the details of these significant associations and a graphical representation of all ontologies are available as Additional files 1 and 4. ECM, extracellular matrix.