Pathway network inference from gene expression data.

TitlePathway network inference from gene expression data.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsPonzoni, I, Nueda, M, Tarazona, S, Götz, S, Montaner, D, Dussaut, J, Dopazo, J, Conesa, A
JournalBMC Syst Biol
Volume8 Suppl 2
PaginationS7
Date Published2014
ISSN1752-0509
KeywordsAlzheimer Disease; Cell Cycle; DNA Replication; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Regulatory Networks; Gluconeogenesis; Glycolysis; Oxidative Phosphorylation; Proteolysis; Purines; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Systems biology; Ubiquitin
Abstract

BACKGROUND: The development of high-throughput omics technologies enabled genome-wide measurements of the activity of cellular elements and provides the analytical resources for the progress of the Systems Biology discipline. Analysis and interpretation of gene expression data has evolved from the gene to the pathway and interaction level, i.e. from the detection of differentially expressed genes, to the establishment of gene interaction networks and the identification of enriched functional categories. Still, the understanding of biological systems requires a further level of analysis that addresses the characterization of the interaction between functional modules.RESULTS: We present a novel computational methodology to study the functional interconnections among the molecular elements of a biological system. The PANA approach uses high-throughput genomics measurements and a functional annotation scheme to extract an activity profile from each functional block -or pathway- followed by machine-learning methods to infer the relationships between these functional profiles. The result is a global, interconnected network of pathways that represents the functional cross-talk within the molecular system. We have applied this approach to describe the functional transcriptional connections during the yeast cell cycle and to identify pathways that change their connectivity in a disease condition using an Alzheimer example.CONCLUSIONS: PANA is a useful tool to deepen in our understanding of the functional interdependences that operate within complex biological systems. We show the approach is algorithmically consistent and the inferred network is well supported by the available functional data. The method allows the dissection of the molecular basis of the functional connections and we describe the different regulatory mechanisms that explain the network's topology obtained for the yeast cell cycle data.

DOI10.1186/1752-0509-8-S2-S7
Alternate JournalBMC Syst Biol
PubMed ID25032889
PubMed Central IDPMC4101702