6,642 research outputs found
Information-Theoretic Inference of Large Transcriptional Regulatory Networks
The paper presents MRNET, an original method for inferring genetic networks from microarray data. The method is based on maximum relevance/minimum redundancy (MRMR), an effective information-theoretic technique for feature selection in supervised learning. The MRMR principle consists in selecting among the least redundant variables the ones that have the highest mutual information with the target. MRNET extends this feature selection principle to networks in order to infer gene-dependence relationships from microarray data. The paper assesses MRNET by benchmarking it against RELNET, CLR, and ARACNE, three state-of-the-art information-theoretic methods for large (up to several thousands of genes) network inference. Experimental results on thirty synthetically generated microarray datasets show that MRNET is competitive with these methods.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Quantitative model for inferring dynamic regulation of the tumour suppressor gene p53
Background: The availability of various "omics" datasets creates a prospect of performing the study of genome-wide genetic regulatory networks. However, one of the major challenges of using mathematical models to infer genetic regulation from microarray datasets is the lack of information for protein concentrations and activities. Most of the previous researches were based on an assumption that the mRNA levels of a gene are consistent with its protein activities, though it is not always the case. Therefore, a more sophisticated modelling framework together with the corresponding inference methods is needed to accurately estimate genetic regulation from "omics" datasets.
Results: This work developed a novel approach, which is based on a nonlinear mathematical model, to infer genetic regulation from microarray gene expression data. By using the p53 network as a test system, we used the nonlinear model to estimate the activities of transcription factor (TF) p53 from the expression levels of its target genes, and to identify the activation/inhibition status of p53 to its target genes. The predicted top 317 putative p53 target genes were supported by DNA sequence analysis. A comparison between our prediction and the other published predictions of p53 targets suggests that most of putative p53 targets may share a common depleted or enriched sequence signal on their upstream non-coding region.
Conclusions: The proposed quantitative model can not only be used to infer the regulatory relationship between TF and its down-stream genes, but also be applied to estimate the protein activities of TF from the expression levels of its target genes
A Posterior Probability Approach for Gene Regulatory Network Inference in Genetic Perturbation Data
Inferring gene regulatory networks is an important problem in systems
biology. However, these networks can be hard to infer from experimental data
because of the inherent variability in biological data as well as the large
number of genes involved. We propose a fast, simple method for inferring
regulatory relationships between genes from knockdown experiments in the NIH
LINCS dataset by calculating posterior probabilities, incorporating prior
information. We show that the method is able to find previously identified
edges from TRANSFAC and JASPAR and discuss the merits and limitations of this
approach
Inferring dynamic genetic networks with low order independencies
In this paper, we propose a novel inference method for dynamic genetic
networks which makes it possible to face with a number of time measurements n
much smaller than the number of genes p. The approach is based on the concept
of low order conditional dependence graph that we extend here in the case of
Dynamic Bayesian Networks. Most of our results are based on the theory of
graphical models associated with the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). In this
way, we define a minimal DAG G which describes exactly the full order
conditional dependencies given the past of the process. Then, to face with the
large p and small n estimation case, we propose to approximate DAG G by
considering low order conditional independencies. We introduce partial qth
order conditional dependence DAGs G(q) and analyze their probabilistic
properties. In general, DAGs G(q) differ from DAG G but still reflect relevant
dependence facts for sparse networks such as genetic networks. By using this
approximation, we set out a non-bayesian inference method and demonstrate the
effectiveness of this approach on both simulated and real data analysis. The
inference procedure is implemented in the R package 'G1DBN' freely available
from the CRAN archive
Defining a robust biological prior from Pathway Analysis to drive Network Inference
Inferring genetic networks from gene expression data is one of the most
challenging work in the post-genomic era, partly due to the vast space of
possible networks and the relatively small amount of data available. In this
field, Gaussian Graphical Model (GGM) provides a convenient framework for the
discovery of biological networks. In this paper, we propose an original
approach for inferring gene regulation networks using a robust biological prior
on their structure in order to limit the set of candidate networks.
Pathways, that represent biological knowledge on the regulatory networks,
will be used as an informative prior knowledge to drive Network Inference. This
approach is based on the selection of a relevant set of genes, called the
"molecular signature", associated with a condition of interest (for instance,
the genes involved in disease development). In this context, differential
expression analysis is a well established strategy. However outcome signatures
are often not consistent and show little overlap between studies. Thus, we will
dedicate the first part of our work to the improvement of the standard process
of biomarker identification to guarantee the robustness and reproducibility of
the molecular signature.
Our approach enables to compare the networks inferred between two conditions
of interest (for instance case and control networks) and help along the
biological interpretation of results. Thus it allows to identify differential
regulations that occur in these conditions. We illustrate the proposed approach
by applying our method to a study of breast cancer's response to treatment
How to understand the cell by breaking it: network analysis of gene perturbation screens
Modern high-throughput gene perturbation screens are key technologies at the
forefront of genetic research. Combined with rich phenotypic descriptors they
enable researchers to observe detailed cellular reactions to experimental
perturbations on a genome-wide scale. This review surveys the current
state-of-the-art in analyzing perturbation screens from a network point of
view. We describe approaches to make the step from the parts list to the wiring
diagram by using phenotypes for network inference and integrating them with
complementary data sources. The first part of the review describes methods to
analyze one- or low-dimensional phenotypes like viability or reporter activity;
the second part concentrates on high-dimensional phenotypes showing global
changes in cell morphology, transcriptome or proteome.Comment: Review based on ISMB 2009 tutorial; after two rounds of revisio
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