Functional abstraction as a method to discover knowledge in gene ontologies.

ABSTRACT: Computational analyses of functions of gene sets obtained in microarray analyses or by topical database searches are increasingly important in biology. To understand their functions, the sets are usually mapped to Gene Ontology knowledge bases by means of over-representation analysis (ORA). Its result represents the specific knowledge of the functionality of the gene set. However, the specific ontology typically consists of many terms and relationships, hindering the understanding of the 'main story'. We developed a methodology to identify a comprehensibly small number of GO terms as "headlines" of the specific ontology allowing to understand all central aspects of the roles of the involved genes. The Functional Abstraction method finds a set of headlines that is specific enough to cover a

SUBMITTER: Ultsch A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3935416 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature