Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2003
Publication Title
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
Volume
11
First Page
555
Last Page
559
Abstract
Many genes can play a role in multiple biological processes or molecular functions. Identifying multifunctional genes at the genome-wide level and studying their properties can shed light upon the complexity of molecular events that underpin cellular functioning, thereby leading to a better understanding of the functional landscape of the cell. However, to date, genome-wide analysis of multifunctional genes (and the proteins they encode) has been limited. Here we introduce a computational approach that uses known functional annotations to extract genes playing a role in at least two distinct biological processes. We leverage functional genomics data sets for three organisms—H. sapiens, D. melanogaster, and S. cerevisiae—and show that, as compared to other annotated genes, genes involved in multiple biological processes possess distinct physicochemical properties, are more broadly expressed, tend to be more central in protein interaction networks, tend to be more evolutionarily conserved, and are more likely to be essential. We also find that multifunctional genes are significantly more likely to be involved in human disorders. These same features also hold when multifunctionality is defined with respect to molecular functions instead of biological processes. Our analysis uncovers key features about multifunctional genes, and is a step towards a better genome-wide understanding of gene multifunctionality.
Recommended Citation
Wolcott, Peter and Goodman, Seymour E., "Introducing the Global Diffusion of the Internet Series" (2003). Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications. 39.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/isqafacpub/39
Comments
© 2003 Association for Information Systems. This article was originally published here: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol11/iss1/31/.