Interpreting Enrichment Analysis Results

MetaboAnalyst
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1

Hello,

In the QEA analysis result table: each time I ran the analysis, the raw p-values seem to be inversely related to the q-values. How should I interpret this?
And which results should I consider significant? E.g. if I go with the standard for raw p-value (<0.05), I’m getting very high (significantly above expected) q-value; if I go with a low q-value, corresponding raw p-value is beyond anything considered to be significant.
Could this indicate problem with the data?

Also, for the box plots showing relative abundance of the hit metabolites: all of mine have values above and below 0. Should I interpret that as above normal (i.e. reference) abundance and below normal abundance?

Thank you

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2

I confused Q statistic with q-value; please disregard the first part of the question.
Plot for the second part of the question:

ArachidonicAcidMetdpi72
ArachidonicAcidMetdpi72864×432 12.9 KB

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Values around 0 are likely due to normalization (scaling), not related to “normal” or “reference”. You can say compound A is more abundant in group “fast” than in group “glu”.

4

That makes sense, thank you!
Is there a way to tell the type of pathway perturbation (as in, is it enriched or depleted compared to the reference)?

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