Web-based tools for the visualisation of over-represented components of the genetic regulatory network in microarray datasets

Abstract

The advent of genome-wide high-throughput techniques has produced vast amounts of data that provide snapshots of cellular responses to change. The development of computational tools for the analyses and graphical representation of these data is a major challenge. For instance the development of DNA microarrays techniques has provided the faculty to study many aspects of gene regulation underlying cellular responses. Genes are regulated by transcription factor (TF) interactions at gene promoter regions and the genome-wide interaction of these constitutes the Genetic Regulatory Network (GRN). We are developing web-based bioinformatic tools for the analysis of user defined gene expression data that display computer generated graphics of the GRN underlying the cellular response. Users may also compare two data-sets of differing expression profiles (for instance up- and down-regulated genes) to generate graphics that represent how components of the GRN underlie genes with different expression profiles. The GRN graphic may be grouped according to a range of biological categories and choice of colour and shape provide an information rich display that cannot be achieved through text based representation alone. This provides investigators with an immediate overview of components of the GRN allowing further hypothesis to be generated