Hong-Dong Li1,2, Tianjian Bai2, Erin Sandford3, Margit Burmeister2,3, Yuanfang Guan2. 1. Center for Bioinformatics, School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China. 2. Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics. 3. Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Abstract
MOTIVATION: Functional gene networks, representing how likely two genes work in the same biological process, are important models for studying gene interactions in complex tissues. However, a limitation of the current network-building scheme is the lack of leveraging evidence from multiple model organisms as well as the lack of expert curation and quality control of the input genomic data. RESULTS: Here, we present BaiHui, a brain-specific functional gene network built by probabilistically integrating expertly-hand-curated (by reading original publications) heterogeneous and multi-species genomic data in human, mouse and rat brains. To facilitate the use of this network, we deployed a web server through which users can query their genes of interest, visualize the network, gain functional insight from enrichment analysis and download network data. We also illustrated how this network could be used to generate testable hypotheses on disease gene prioritization of brain disorders. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: BaiHui is freely available at: http://guanlab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/BaiHui/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
MOTIVATION: Functional gene networks, representing how likely two genes work in the same biological process, are important models for studying gene interactions in complex tissues. However, a limitation of the current network-building scheme is the lack of leveraging evidence from multiple model organisms as well as the lack of expert curation and quality control of the input genomic data. RESULTS: Here, we present BaiHui, a brain-specific functional gene network built by probabilistically integrating expertly-hand-curated (by reading original publications) heterogeneous and multi-species genomic data in human, mouse and rat brains. To facilitate the use of this network, we deployed a web server through which users can query their genes of interest, visualize the network, gain functional insight from enrichment analysis and download network data. We also illustrated how this network could be used to generate testable hypotheses on disease gene prioritization of brain disorders. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: BaiHui is freely available at: http://guanlab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/BaiHui/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.