What is fold change? What is logFC?
What is fold change?
Fold change is a metric that expresses the extent of change between two measurements. In gene expression analysis, such as microarray or RNA-Seq analysis, it refers to the ratio of expression between samples or between groups.
What is logFC?
Fold change converted to a logarithmic scale (log fold change, log2 fold change) is sometimes denoted as logFC. In many cases, the base is 2.
Examples of Fold Change / logFC
For example, if the average expression level is 100 in the control group and 200 in the treatment group, the fold change is 2, and the logFC is 1.
Gene Name | Average Expression Level in the Control Group | Average Expression Level in the Treatment Group | fold change | logFC |
Gene A | 100 | 200 | 2 | 1 |
Gene B | 100 | 400 | 4 | 2 |
Gene C | 200 | 100 | 0.5 | -1 |
In gene expression analysis, such as microarray or RNA-Seq analysis, figures such as Volcano plots and MA plots are commonly drawn. LogFC corresponds to the x-axis in a Volcano plot and to the y-axis in an MA plot.
Example of a Volcano Plot
Example of an MA Plot
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