Analysis of differentially-regulated genes within a regulatory network by GPS genome navigation

Igor Zwir, Henry Huang, Eduardo A. Groisman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Motivation: A critical challenge of the post-genomic era is to understand how genes are differentially regulated even when they belong to a given network. Because the fundamental mechanism controlling gene expression operates at the level of transcription initiation, computational techniques have been developed that identify cis regulatory features and map such features into expression patterns to classify genes into distinct networks. However, these methods are not focused on distinguishing between differentially regulated genes within a given network. Here we describe an unsupervised machine learning method, termed GPS for gene promoter scan, that discriminates among co-regulated promoters by simultaneously considering both cis-acting regulatory features and gene expression. GPS is particularly useful for knowledge discovery in environments with reduced datasets and high levels of uncertainty. Results: Application of this method to the enteric bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica uncovered novel members, as well as regulatory interactions in the regulon controlled by the PhoP protein that were not discovered using previous approaches. The predictions made by GPS were experimentally validated to establish that the PhoP protein uses multiple mechanisms to control gene transcription, and is a central element in a highly connected network.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4073-4083
Number of pages11
JournalBioinformatics
Volume21
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 15 2005

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Analysis of differentially-regulated genes within a regulatory network by GPS genome navigation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this