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FunctSNP: an R package to link SNPs to functional knowledge and dbAutoMaker: a suite of Perl scripts to build SNP databases.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Whole genome association studies using highly dense single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are a set of methods to identify DNA markers associated with variation in a particular complex trait of interest. One of the main outcomes from these studies is a subset of statistically significant SNPs. Finding the potential biological functions of such SNPs can be an important step towards further use in human and agricultural populations (e.g., for identifying genes related to susceptibility to complex diseases or genes playing key roles in development or performance). The current challenge is that the information holding the clues to SNP functions is distributed across many different databases. Efficient bioinformatics tools are therefore needed to seamlessly integrate up-to-date functional information on SNPs. Many web services have arisen to meet the challenge but most work only within the framework of human medical research. Although we acknowledge the importance of human research, we identify there is a need for SNP annotation tools for other organisms. DESCRIPTION: We introduce an R package called FunctSNP, which is the user interface to custom built species-specific databases. The local relational databases contain SNP data together with functional annotations extracted from online resources. FunctSNP provides a unified bioinformatics resource to link SNPs with functional knowledge (e.g., genes, pathways, ontologies). We also introduce dbAutoMaker, a suite of Perl scripts, which can be scheduled to run periodically to automatically create/update the customised SNP databases. We illustrate the use of FunctSNP with a livestock example, but the approach and software tools presented here can be applied also to human and other organisms. CONCLUSIONS: Finding the potential functional significance of SNPs is important when further using the outcomes from whole genome association studies. FunctSNP is unique in that it is the only R package that links SNPs to functional annotation. FunctSNP interfaces to local SNP customised databases which can be built for any species contained in the National Center for Biotechnology Information dbSNP database.

SUBMITTER: Goodswen SJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2901372 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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FunctSNP: an R package to link SNPs to functional knowledge and dbAutoMaker: a suite of Perl scripts to build SNP databases.

Goodswen Stephen J SJ Gondro Cedric C Watson-Haigh Nathan S NS Kadarmideen Haja N HN

BMC bioinformatics 20100609

<h4>Background</h4>Whole genome association studies using highly dense single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are a set of methods to identify DNA markers associated with variation in a particular complex trait of interest. One of the main outcomes from these studies is a subset of statistically significant SNPs. Finding the potential biological functions of such SNPs can be an important step towards further use in human and agricultural populations (e.g., for identifying genes related to suscep ...[more]

PMID: 20534127

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Project description:BackgroundProtein-protein interaction (PPI) data are widely used to generate network models that aim to describe the relationships between proteins in biological systems. The fidelity and completeness of such networks is primarily limited by the paucity of protein interaction information and by the restriction of most of these data to just a few widely studied experimental organisms. In order to extend the utility of existing PPIs, computational methods can be used that exploit functional conservation between orthologous proteins across taxa to predict putative PPIs or 'interologs'. To date most interolog prediction efforts have been restricted to specific biological domains with fixed underlying data sources and there are no software tools available that provide a generalised framework for 'on-the-fly' interolog prediction.ResultsWe introduce Bio::Homology::InterologWalk, a Perl module to retrieve, prioritise and visualise putative protein-protein interactions through an orthology-walk method. The module uses orthology and experimental interaction data to generate putative PPIs and optionally collates meta-data into an Interaction Prioritisation Index that can be used to help prioritise interologs for further analysis. We show the application of our interolog prediction method to the genomic interactome of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We analyse the resulting interaction networks and show that the method proposes new interactome members and interactions that are candidates for future experimental investigation.ConclusionsOur interolog prediction tool employs the Ensembl Perl API and PSICQUIC enabled protein interaction data sources to generate up to date interologs 'on-the-fly'. This represents a significant advance on previous methods for interolog prediction as it allows the use of the latest orthology and protein interaction data for all of the genomes in Ensembl. The module outputs simple text files, making it easy to customise the results by post-processing, allowing the putative PPI datasets to be easily integrated into existing analysis workflows. The Bio::Homology::InterologWalk module, sample scripts and full documentation are freely available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) under the GNU Public license.

Dataset Information

FunctSNP: an R package to link SNPs to functional knowledge and dbAutoMaker: a suite of Perl scripts to build SNP databases.

Publications

FunctSNP: an R package to link SNPs to functional knowledge and dbAutoMaker: a suite of Perl scripts to build SNP databases.

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