What is ma-plot?

A MA-plot is a graphical representation of the comparison of two different datasets, such as two sets of gene expression data. The x-axis (horizontal) represents the average of the two datasets, while the y-axis (vertical) represents the difference between the two datasets. By plotting the data in this way, it is possible to quickly identify genes that are differentially expressed between the two datasets. This type of plot is often used in bioinformatics and genomics research to visualize the results of differential gene expression analyses. The term "MA" stands for "log ratio" (M) and "average expression" (A), which are used to calculate the position of each data point on the plot.