What are the choices of population background in DAVID enrichment analysis?
The enrichment analysis is indeed to compare the annotation composition in your gene list to that of a population background genes. In this sense, the selection of a population background will affect result significantly. Unfortunately, there is no gold background to win all the situations of various studies. DAVID default population background in enrichment calculation is the corresponding genome-wide genes with at least one annotation in the analyzing cetegories. The default background is a good choice for the studies in genome-wide scope or close to genome-wide scope. Since DAVID 2006, more background choices have been added in DAVID applications, which are Affymetrix chip and Illumina chip backgrounds and user input customized background. The pre-built Affymetrix chip and Illumina chip backgrounds can be selected through “background” tab on top of Gene List Manager panel. Affymetrix chip and Illumina chip backgrounds will be a better choice for a gene list derived from Affymetrix m
