Inferring the regulatory network behind a gene expression experiment

Abstract

Transcription factors (TFs) and miRNAs are the most important dynamic regulators in the control of gene expression in multicellular organisms. These regulatory elements play crucial roles in development, cell cycling and cell signaling, and they have also been associated with many diseases. The Regulatory Network Analysis Tool (RENATO) web server makes the exploration of regulatory networks easy, enabling a better understanding of functional modularity and network integrity under specific perturbations. RENATO is suitable for the analysis of the result of expression profiling experiments. The program analyses lists of genes and search for the regulators compatible with its activation or deactivation. Tests of single enrichment or gene set enrichment allow the selection of the subset of TFs or miRNAs significantly involved in the regulation of the query genes. RENATO also offers an interactive advanced graphical interface that allows exploring the regulatory network found.RENATO is available at: http://renato.bioinfo.cipf.es/. © 2012 The Author(s).