Using Biological Networks in Protein Function Prediction and Gene Expression Analysis

Abstract

While sequence homology search has been the main work horse in protein function prediction, it is not applicable to a significant portion of novel proteins that do not have informative homologs in sequence databases. Similarly, while statistical tests and learning algorithms based purely on gene expression profiles have been popular for analyzing disease samples, critical issues remain in the understanding of diseases based on the differentially expressed genes suggested by these methods. In the past decade, a large number of databases providing information on various types of biological networks have become available. These databases make it possible to tackle these and other biological problems in novel ways. This paper presents a review on biological network databases and on approaches to protein function prediction and gene expression profile analysis that are based on biological networks.