Search

Cytoscape is an open-source software used to analyze and visualize biological networks. In addition to being able to import networks from a variety of sources, Cytoscape allows users to import tabular node data and visualize it onto networks. Unfortunately, such data tables can only contain one row of data per node, whereas omics data often have multiple rows for the same gene or protein, representing different post-translational modification sites, peptides, splice isoforms, or conditions. Here, we present a new app, Omics Visualizer, that allows users to import data tables with several rows referring to the same node, connect them to one or more networks, and visualize the connected data onto networks. Omics Visualizer uses the Cytoscape enhancedGraphics app to show the data either in the nodes (pie visualization) or around the nodes (donut visualization), where the colors of the slices represent the imported values. If the user does not provide a network, the app can retrieve one from the STRING database using the Cytoscape stringApp. The Omics Visualizer app is freely available at https://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/omicsvisualizer.

Protein networks have become a popular tool for analyzing and visualizing the often long lists of proteins or genes obtained from proteomics and other high-throughput technologies. One of the most popular sources of such networks is the STRING database, which provides protein networks for more than 2000 organisms, including both physical interactions from experimental data and functional associations from curated pathways, automatic text mining, and prediction methods. However, its web interface is mainly intended for inspection of small networks and their underlying evidence. The Cytoscape software, on the other hand, is much better suited for working with large networks and offers greater flexibility in terms of network analysis, import, and visualization of additional data. To include both resources in the same workflow, we created stringApp, a Cytoscape app that makes it easy to import STRING networks into Cytoscape, retains the appearance and many of the features of STRING, and integrates data from associated databases. Here, we introduce many of the stringApp features and show how they can be used to carry out complex network analysis and visualization tasks on a typical proteomics data set, all through the Cytoscape user interface. stringApp is freely available from the Cytoscape app store: http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/stringapp .

Proteins and their functional interactions form the backbone of the cellular machinery. Their connectivity network needs to be considered for the full understanding of biological phenomena, but the available information on protein-protein associations is incomplete and exhibits varying levels of annotation granularity and reliability. The STRING database aims to collect, score and integrate all publicly available sources of protein-protein interaction information, and to complement these with computational predictions. Its goal is to achieve a comprehensive and objective global network, including direct (physical) as well as indirect (functional) interactions. The latest version of STRING (11.0) more than doubles the number of organisms it covers, to 5090. The most important new feature is an option to upload entire, genome-wide datasets as input, allowing users to visualize subsets as interaction networks and to perform gene-set enrichment analysis on the entire input. For the enrichment analysis, STRING implements well-known classification systems such as Gene Ontology and KEGG, but also offers additional, new classification systems based on high-throughput text-mining as well as on a hierarchical clustering of the association network itself. The STRING resource is available online at https://string-db.org/.

A system-wide understanding of cellular function requires knowledge of all functional interactions between the expressed proteins. The STRING database aims to collect and integrate this information, by consolidating known and predicted protein-protein association data for a large number of organisms. The associations in STRING include direct (physical) interactions, as well as indirect (functional) interactions, as long as both are specific and biologically meaningful. Apart from collecting and reassessing available experimental data on protein-protein interactions, and importing known pathways and protein complexes from curated databases, interaction predictions are derived from the following sources: (i) systematic co-expression analysis, (ii) detection of shared selective signals across genomes, (iii) automated text-mining of the scientific literature and (iv) computational transfer of interaction knowledge between organisms based on gene orthology. In the latest version 10.5 of STRING, the biggest changes are concerned with data dissemination: the web frontend has been completely redesigned to reduce dependency on outdated browser technologies, and the database can now also be queried from inside the popular Cytoscape software framework. Further improvements include automated background analysis of user inputs for functional enrichments, and streamlined download options. The STRING resource is available online, at http://string-db.org/.

Epidemiological studies suggest a relationship between blood lipids and immune-mediated diseases, but the nature of these associations is not well understood. We used genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to investigate shared single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between blood lipids and immune-mediated diseases. We analyzed data from GWAS (n~200,000 individuals), applying new False Discovery Rate (FDR) methods, to investigate genetic overlap between blood lipid levels [triglycerides (TG), low density lipoproteins (LDL), high density lipoproteins (HDL)] and a selection of archetypal immune-mediated diseases (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, psoriasis and sarcoidosis). We found significant polygenic pleiotropy between the blood lipids and all the investigated immune-mediated diseases. We discovered several shared risk loci between the immune-mediated diseases and TG (n = 88), LDL (n = 87) and HDL (n = 52). Three-way analyses differentiated the pattern of pleiotropy among the immune-mediated diseases. The new pleiotropic loci increased the number of functional gene network nodes representing blood lipid loci by 40%. Pathway analyses implicated several novel shared mechanisms for immune pathogenesis and lipid biology, including glycosphingolipid synthesis (e.g. FUT2) and intestinal host-microbe interactions (e.g. ATG16L1). We demonstrate a shared genetic basis for blood lipids and immune-mediated diseases independent of environmental factors. Our findings provide novel mechanistic insights into dyslipidemia and immune-mediated diseases and may have implications for therapeutic trials involving lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory agents.

setsApp ( http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/setsapp) is a relatively simple Cytoscape 3 app for users to handle groups of nodes and/or edges. It supports several important biological workflows and enables various set operations. setsApp provides basic tools to create sets of nodes or edges, import or export sets, and perform standard set operations (union, difference, intersection) on those sets. Automatic set partitioning and layout functions are also provided. The sets functionality is also exposed to users and app developers in the form of a set of commands that can be used for scripting purposes or integrated in other Cytoscape apps.

setsApp ( http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/setsapp) is a relatively simple Cytoscape 3 app for users to handle groups of nodes and/or edges. It supports several important biological workflows and enables various set operations. setsApp provides basic tools to create sets of nodes or edges, import or export sets, and perform standard set operations (union, difference, intersection) on those sets. Automatic set partitioning and layout functions are also provided. The sets functionality is also exposed to users and app developers in the form of a set of commands that can be used for scripting purposes or integrated in other Cytoscape apps.

Background & aimsGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 140 Crohn's disease (CD) susceptibility loci. For most loci, the variants that cause disease are not known and the genes affected by these variants have not been identified. We aimed to identify variants that cause CD through detailed sequencing, genetic association, expression, and functional studies.MethodsWe sequenced whole exomes of 42 unrelated subjects with CD and 5 healthy subjects (controls) and then filtered single nucleotide variants by incorporating association results from meta-analyses of CD GWAS and in silico mutation effect prediction algorithms. We then genotyped 9348 subjects with CD, 2868 subjects with ulcerative colitis, and 14,567 control subjects and associated variants analyzed in functional studies using materials from subjects and controls and in vitro model systems.ResultsWe identified rare missense mutations in PR domain-containing 1 (PRDM1) and associated these with CD. These mutations increased proliferation of T cells and secretion of cytokines on activation and increased expression of the adhesion molecule L-selectin. A common CD risk allele, identified in GWAS, correlated with reduced expression of PRDM1 in ileal biopsy specimens and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (combined P = 1.6 × 10(-8)). We identified an association between CD and a common missense variant, Val248Ala, in nuclear domain 10 protein 52 (NDP52) (P = 4.83 × 10(-9)). We found that this variant impairs the regulatory functions of NDP52 to inhibit nuclear factor κB activation of genes that regulate inflammation and affect the stability of proteins in Toll-like receptor pathways.ConclusionsWe have extended the results of GWAS and provide evidence that variants in PRDM1 and NDP52 determine susceptibility to CD. PRDM1 maps adjacent to a CD interval identified in GWAS and encodes a transcription factor expressed by T and B cells. NDP52 is an adaptor protein that functions in selective autophagy of intracellular bacteria and signaling molecules, supporting the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of CD.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a severe liver disease of unknown etiology leading to fibrotic destruction of the bile ducts and ultimately to the need for liver transplantation. We compared 3,789 PSC cases of European ancestry to 25,079 population controls across 130,422 SNPs genotyped using the Immunochip. We identified 12 genome-wide significant associations outside the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex, 9 of which were new, increasing the number of known PSC risk loci to 16. Despite comorbidity with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in 72% of the cases, 6 of the 12 loci showed significantly stronger association with PSC than with IBD, suggesting overlapping yet distinct genetic architectures for these two diseases. We incorporated association statistics from 7 diseases clinically occurring with PSC in the analysis and found suggestive evidence for 33 additional pleiotropic PSC risk loci. Together with network analyses, these findings add to the genetic risk map of PSC and expand on the relationship between PSC and other immune-mediated diseases.