Development of a versatile enrichment analysis tool reveals associations between the maternal brain and mental health disorders, including autism.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A recent study of lateral septum (LS) suggested a large number of autism-related genes with altered expression in the postpartum state. However, formally testing the findings for enrichment of autism-associated genes proved to be problematic with existing software. Many gene-disease association databases have been curated which are not currently incorporated in popular, full-featured enrichment tools, and the use of custom gene lists in these programs can be difficult to perform and interpret. As a simple alternative, we have developed the Modular Single-set Enrichment Test (MSET), a minimal tool that enables one to easily evaluate expression data for enrichment of any conceivable gene list of interest.

Results

The MSET approach was validated by testing several pu

SUBMITTER: Eisinger BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3840590 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature