genetic interactions and biclustering

Biculstering analysis suggests that the Lge1/Bre1 ubiquitinnation complex may perform multiple functions by collaborating with distinct sets of complexes.

Epistasis, defined as the effects of mutations on the phenotypes caused by other mutations, is deemed as an important etiological factor for many multi-gene diseases, such as diabetes and autism. Understanding of epistatic or genetic interactions can be very helpful for uncovering functional association between genes. Recently, the Epistasis Miniarray Profile (E-MAP) method has emerged as a powerful approach for identifying such associations on large scale. As part of this approach, hierarchic clustering and related computational methods are used to discern functional relationships between genes on the basis of the similarity between their interaction profiles with other genes. But so far, the resulting descriptions assign each gene to only one group, thereby ignoring the multi-functional roles played by most genes. We have developed an original biclustring algorithm for identifying groups of functionally related gene from E-MAP data in a manner that allows assignment of individual genes to more than one functional group, thereby enabling the investigation of the pleiotropic nature of gene functions.

For further details see:

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  Pu S, Ronen K, Vlasblom J, Greenblatt J, Wodak SJ.
  Local Coherence in Genetic Interaction Patterns Reveals Prevalent Functional Versatility.
  Bioinformatics. 2008 Aug 20