Quantifying the relationship between co-expression, co-regulation and gene function

Background: It is thought that genes with similar patterns of mRNA expression and genes with similar functions are likely to be regulated via the same mechanisms. It has been difficult to quantitatively test these hypotheses on a large scale because there has been no general way of determining whether genes share a common regulatory mechanism. Here we use data from a recent genome wide binding analysis in combination with mRNA expression data and existing functional annotations to quantify the likelihood that genes with varying degrees of similarity in mRNA expression profile or function will be bound by a common transcription factor. Results: Genes with strongly correlated mRNA expression profiles are more likely to have their promoter regions bound by a common transcription factor. This effect is present only at relatively high levels of expression similarity. In order for two genes to have a greater than 50% chance of sharing a common transcription factor binder, the correlation be...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2004
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Dominic J. Allocco, Isaac S. Kohane, Atul J. Butte
• Keywords: BMCBI 2004, Common Transcription Factor, Mrna Expression, MRNA Expression Data