Correlated fragile site expression allows the identification of candidate fragile genes involved in immunity and associated with

Background: Common fragile sites (cfs) are specific regions in the human genome that are particularly prone to genomic instability under conditions of replicative stress. Several investigations support the view that common fragile sites play a role in carcinogenesis. We discuss a genome-wide approach based on graph theory and Gene Ontology vocabulary for the functional characterization of common fragile sites and for the identification of genes that contribute to tumour cell biology. Results: Common fragile sites were assembled in a network based on a simple measure of correlation among common fragile site patterns of expression. By applying robust measurements to capture in quantitative terms the non triviality of the network, we identified several topological features clearly indicating departure from the Erdos-Renyi random graph model. The most important outcome was the presence of an unexpected large connected component far below the percolation threshold. Most of the best charact...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Angela Re, Davide Corà, Alda Maria Puliti, Michele Caselle, Isabella Sbrana
• Keywords: BMCBI 2006, Common Fragile Site, Connected Component, Gene Ontology