Download Paper No. 17-01

Authors: Honnor TR, Brettschneider JA, Johansen AM

Title: Differences in spatial point patterns with application to subcellular biological structures

Abstract: In many real-world scenarios point pattern data may be obtained from two populations, with a desire to determine the extent and form of any difference between the point pattern structure. We have developed nonparametric statistics and a testing procedure free of distributional assumptions to quantify the significance of calculated differences between point pattern structures. The validity of the methodology is illustrated and its sensitivity investigated through application to simulated unmarked and marked point patterns. Analysis of a biological data set in which points represent microtubule locations within K-fibers is then carried out for control cells and cells for which TACC3 has been overexpressed. The results of our methodology when applied to this data indicate that TACC3 overexpression has a significant impact on K-fiber structure, shedding some light on the interplay between the structures and chemicals involved in mitosis and informing biologists future directions of study.