CoCoCoNet

CoCoCoNet identifies conserved gene modules and performs comparative analyses of co-expression networks across 14 species to reveal conserved functional relationships among genes.

Key Features:

• Conservation Analysis: Identifies conserved gene modules across species using co-expression network comparisons, exemplified by detection of a conserved nucleolus gene module across highly divergent organisms.
• Comparative Network Analysis: Compares co-expression networks to prioritize candidate human disease genes based on conserved network properties and to reveal alternative model systems with conserved patterns.
• Functional Group Translation: Translates functional gene groups from humans into corresponding model organisms to dissect mechanistic heterogeneity, such as mapping human autism-related modules to models.
• Gold-standard Networks and Cross-species Integration: Provides gold-standard co-expression networks and on-the-fly comparative capabilities integrating data across 14 species for cross-species analyses.

Scientific Applications:

• Gene Function Insights: Infers gene function across species by analyzing conserved co-expression patterns, with examples spanning Arabidopsis to zebrafish.
• Disease Gene Prioritization: Prioritizes candidate human disease genes based on conserved network topology and co-expression relationships.
• Model System Identification: Identifies model organisms that recapitulate conserved co-expression patterns to guide selection of experimental systems.
• Dissection of Complex Mechanisms: Maps heterogeneous human biological mechanisms, such as autism-related modules, onto model organisms to enable mechanistic studies.

Methodology:

Constructs and compares co-expression networks using integrated data from 14 species and applies rigorous network analysis techniques to identify conserved gene modules and functional relationships.