Patent ID: 7729864

Claim:
A method of identifying a set of cellular constituents in a secondary tissue of a species that serves as a surrogate marker for an activity of a target gene that affects a trait of interest, which said target gene is expressed in a primary tissue of said species, the method comprising: (a) constructing a classifier using abundance levels, each abundance level being of a respective cellular constituent in a plurality of cellular constituents measured in said secondary tissue in a portion of a population of said species, to derive an ordered set of cellular constituents, wherein said portion of the population comprises a first subgroup and a second subgroup that have distinct phenotypes, respectively, for the trait; respective abundance levels of each cellular constituent in said plurality of cellular constituents discriminate between said first subgroup and said second subgroup; and (b) classifying said population of said species into a plurality of subtypes using said classifier, wherein said classifying is based on abundance levels of said ordered set of cellular constituents for each organism in said population; and (c) identifying one or more cellular constituents that can discriminate members of said population between a first subtype in said plurality of subtypes and a second subtype in said plurality of subtypes, thereby identifying said one or more cellular constituents as said set of cellular constituents, wherein said constructing, classifying, and identifying steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer.