Generic GO Term Finder

Generic GO Term Finder identifies statistically enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms in gene lists to characterize shared biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular components.

Key Features:

• Access to Gene Ontology information: Retrieves and evaluates GO annotations associated with input gene lists to enable exploration of gene functions, biological processes, and cellular components.
• Statistical evaluation: Calculates the statistical significance of collective GO annotations for a given gene list to identify enriched terms in high-throughput datasets such as microarrays.
• Visualization capabilities: Produces visual representations that aid interpretation of relationships among genes and their associated GO terms.
• Object-oriented Perl implementation: Implemented as a suite of object-oriented Perl modules for management and processing of GO data.

Scientific Applications:

• Microarray and high-throughput data analysis: Identifies GO terms overrepresented in gene lists derived from microarray experiments and other high-throughput assays.
• Functional genomics: Supports interpretation of gene function and shared biological roles within gene sets.
• Systems biology and pathway inference: Helps elucidate underlying biological processes and pathways from groups of co-annotated genes.
• Comparative genomics: Facilitates comparison of GO term enrichment across gene sets from different species or conditions.

Methodology:

Implemented as object-oriented Perl modules; performs statistical evaluation of GO-term enrichment for input gene lists and generates visualizations to represent relationships among enriched GO terms and associated genes.