Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses of genes related to age-related macular degeneration

Biomed Res Int. 2014:2014:450386. doi: 10.1155/2014/450386. Epub 2014 Aug 6.

Abstract

Identifying disease genes is one of the most important topics in biomedicine and may facilitate studies on the mechanisms underlying disease. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a serious eye disease; it typically affects older adults and results in a loss of vision due to retina damage. In this study, we attempt to develop an effective method for distinguishing AMD-related genes. Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses of known AMD-related genes were performed, and a classification system was established. In detail, each gene was encoded into a vector by extracting enrichment scores of the gene set, including it and its direct neighbors in STRING, and gene ontology terms or KEGG pathways. Then certain feature-selection methods, including minimum redundancy maximum relevance and incremental feature selection, were adopted to extract key features for the classification system. As a result, 720 GO terms and 11 KEGG pathways were deemed the most important factors for predicting AMD-related genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Genetic*
  • Gene Ontology
  • Humans
  • Macular Degeneration / genetics*
  • Macular Degeneration / pathology
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways*
  • Models, Theoretical