Dataset Information

Co-expression networks: graph properties and topological comparisons.

ABSTRACT:

Motivation

Microarray-based gene expression data have been generated widely to study different biological processes and systems. Gene co-expression networks are often used to extract information about groups of genes that are 'functionally' related or co-regulated. However, the structural properties of such co-expression networks have not been rigorously studied and fully compared with known biological networks. In this article, we aim at investigating the structural properties of co-expression networks inferred for the species Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and comparing them with the topological properties of the known, well-established transcriptional network, MIPS physical network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of yeast.

Results

These topological comparisons indicate that co-expression networks are not distinctly related with either the PPI or the MIPS physical interaction networks, showing important structural differences between them. When focusing on a more literal comparison, vertex by vertex and edge by edge, the conclusion is the same: the fact that two genes exhibit a high gene expression correlation degree does not seem to obviously correlate with the existence of a physical binding between the proteins produced by these genes or the existence of a MIPS physical interaction between the genes. The comparison of the yeast regulatory network with inferred yeast co-expression networks would suggest, however, that they could somehow be related.

Conclusions

We conclude that the gene expression-based co-expression networks reflect more on the gene regulatory networks but less on the PPI or MIPS physical interaction networks.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

SUBMITTER: Xulvi-Brunet R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2804297 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Co-expression networks: graph properties and topological comparisons.

Xulvi-Brunet Ramon R Li Hongzhe H

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) 20091112 2

<h4>Motivation</h4>Microarray-based gene expression data have been generated widely to study different biological processes and systems. Gene co-expression networks are often used to extract information about groups of genes that are 'functionally' related or co-regulated. However, the structural properties of such co-expression networks have not been rigorously studied and fully compared with known biological networks. In this article, we aim at investigating the structural properties of co-exp ...[more]

PMID: 19910304

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Dataset Information

Co-expression networks: graph properties and topological comparisons.

Motivation

Results

Conclusions

Supplementary information

Publications

Co-expression networks: graph properties and topological comparisons.

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