enrichMiR

enrichMiR performs target enrichment analysis to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) that are likely regulating specified gene sets or transcriptional signatures.

Key Features:

• Enrichment Tests: Implements multiple enrichment tests to detect overrepresentation of miRNA targets within gene sets or ranked transcriptional signatures.
• Target Collections: Leverages collections of predicted or experimentally confirmed miRNA targets and integrates results from miRNA target prediction tools.
• Support for Signatures: Analyzes both specified gene sets and differential expression/transcriptional signatures as inputs for enrichment analysis.
• Ranking and Prioritization: Ranks miRNAs by enrichment signal to prioritize candidate regulators for further study.
• Benchmarking: Provides benchmarked evaluations of enrichment tests across experiments with known miRNA perturbations to inform method selection.

Scientific Applications:

• miRNA regulator identification: Identification of miRNAs likely involved in regulating specific gene sets or transcriptional signatures.
• Interpretation of differential expression: Linking differential expression signatures to candidate regulatory miRNAs.
• Perturbation analysis: Evaluation and interpretation of miRNA perturbation experiments using benchmarked enrichment tests.
• Candidate prioritization: Prioritizing miRNA candidates for downstream experimental validation based on enrichment ranking.

Methodology:

Performs enrichment tests using collections of predicted or confirmed miRNA targets, ranks miRNAs by enrichment within gene sets or transcriptional signatures, and benchmarks tests across experiments with known miRNA perturbations.