RAIN: RNA-protein Association and Interaction Networks.

Protein association networks can be inferred from a range of resources including experimental data, literature mining and computational predictions. These types of evidence are emerging for non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) aswell. However, integration of ncRNAs into protein association networks is challenging due to data heterogeneity. Here, we present a database of ncRNA-RNA and ncRNA-protein interactions and its integration with the STRING database of protein-protein interactions. These ncRNA associations cover four organisms and have been established from curated examples, experimental data, interaction predictions and automatic literaturemining. RAIN uses an integrative scoring scheme to assign a confidence score to each interaction. We demonstrate that RAIN outperforms the underlying microRNA-target predictions in inferring ncRNA interactions. RAIN can be operated through an easily accessibleweb interface and all interaction data can be downloaded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]