Computational methods to predict long noncoding RNA functions based on co-expression network

Methods Mol Biol. 2014:1182:209-18. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-1062-5_19.

Abstract

Although long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been recognized in recent years to constitute a significant portion of mammalian transcriptome, and the functional impact of several lncRNAs has been characterized by a few studies, yet it is still difficult to large-scale ascertain their functions from lab experiment or structure prediction. To address this deficit, we have developed a computational pipeline to large-scale annotate the functions of lncRNA based on coding-noncoding gene co-expression network. In this network, a node (circle) represents the protein-coding gene or lncRNA, and an edge (connecting line between nodes) indicates that the two genes are co-expressed (the correlation coefficients of connected genes reached the defined cutoff). In this chapter, we show how to use an lncRNA functional annotation pipeline to construct a co-expression network based on gene expression profiles in prostate cancer and how to further predict lncRNA functions using model-based and hub-based sub-networks.

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / genetics
  • RNA, Long Noncoding / genetics*

Substances

  • RNA, Long Noncoding