PAFway: Pairwise associations between functional annotations in biological networks and pathways

Abstract

Motivation: Large gene networks can be dense and difficult to interpret in a biologically meaningful way. Results: Here, we introduce PAFway, which estimates pairwise associations between functional annotations in biological networks and pathways. It answers the biological question: do genes that have a specific function tend to regulate genes that have a different specific function? The results can be visualized as a heatmap or a network of biological functions. We apply this package to reveal associations between functional annotations in an Arabidopsis thaliana gene network. Availability and implementation: PAFway is submitted to CRAN. Currently available here: https://github.com/ezer/ PAFway.