An efficient weighted graph strategy to identify differentiation associated genes in embryonic stem cells

PLoS One. 2013 Apr 26;8(4):e62716. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062716. Print 2013.

Abstract

In the past few decades, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were of great interest as a model system for studying early developmental processes and because of their potential therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine. However, the underlying mechanisms of ESC differentiation remain unclear, which limits our exploration of the therapeutic potential of stem cells. Fortunately, the increasing quantity and diversity of biological datasets can provide us with opportunities to explore the biological secrets. However, taking advantage of diverse biological information to facilitate the advancement of ESC research still remains a challenge. Here, we propose a scalable, efficient and flexible function prediction framework that integrates diverse biological information using a simple weighted strategy, for uncovering the genetic determinants of mouse ESC differentiation. The advantage of this approach is that it can make predictions based on dynamic information fusion, owing to the simple weighted strategy. With this approach, we identified 30 genes that had been reported to be associated with differentiation of stem cells, which we regard to be associated with differentiation or pluripotency in embryonic stem cells. We also predicted 70 genes as candidates for contributing to differentiation, which requires further confirmation. As a whole, our results showed that this strategy could be applied as a useful tool for ESC research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation / genetics*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Mice
  • ROC Curve

Grants and funding

Research was supported by the Young Talents Scheme of Tongji University, China (To Zhang Jie, 1500219046); Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau Project (To Zhang Jie, z0124y166); National Natural Science Foundation of China (30971621, 81270231 and 31170791); and International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2011DFB30010). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.