A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons

Abstract Background Researchers commonly analyze lists of differentially expressed entities (DEEs), such as differentially expressed genes (DEGs), differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), and differentially methylated positions/regions (DMPs/DMRs), across multiple pairwise comparisons. Large biolog...

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Main Authors: Stanislav A. Listopad, Trina M. Norden-Krichmar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019-11-01
Series:BMC Bioinformatics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12859-019-3121-x
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author Stanislav A. Listopad
Trina M. Norden-Krichmar
author_facet Stanislav A. Listopad
Trina M. Norden-Krichmar
author_sort Stanislav A. Listopad
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Researchers commonly analyze lists of differentially expressed entities (DEEs), such as differentially expressed genes (DEGs), differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), and differentially methylated positions/regions (DMPs/DMRs), across multiple pairwise comparisons. Large biological studies can involve multiple conditions, tissues, and timepoints that result in dozens of pairwise comparisons. Manually filtering and comparing lists of DEEs across multiple pairwise comparisons, typically done by writing custom code, is a cumbersome task that can be streamlined and standardized. Results A-Lister is a lightweight command line and graphical user interface tool written in Python. It can be executed in a differential expression mode or generic name list mode. In differential expression mode, A-Lister accepts as input delimited text files that are output by differential expression tools such as DESeq2, edgeR, Cuffdiff, and limma. To allow for the most flexibility in input ID types, to avoid database installation requirements, and to allow for secure offline use, A-Lister does not validate or impose restrictions on entity ID names. Users can specify thresholds to filter the input file(s) by column(s) such as p-value, q-value, and fold change. Additionally, users can filter the pairwise comparisons within the input files by fold change direction (sign). Queries composed of intersection, fuzzy intersection, difference, and union set operations can also be performed on any number of pairwise comparisons. Thus, the user can filter and compare any number of pairwise comparisons within a single A-Lister differential expression command. In generic name list mode, A-Lister accepts delimited text files containing lists of names as input. Queries composed of intersection, fuzzy intersection, difference, and union set operations can then be performed across these lists of names. Conclusions A-Lister is a flexible tool that enables the user to rapidly narrow down large lists of DEEs to a small number of most significant entities. These entities can then be further analyzed using visualization, pathway analysis, and other bioinformatics tools.
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spelling doaj.art-075ef7e0652a49568d41d8e1ce0adeb62022-12-21T21:33:47ZengBMCBMC Bioinformatics1471-21052019-11-0120111010.1186/s12859-019-3121-xA-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisonsStanislav A. Listopad0Trina M. Norden-Krichmar1Department of Computer Science, University of California IrvineDepartment of Epidemiology, University of California IrvineAbstract Background Researchers commonly analyze lists of differentially expressed entities (DEEs), such as differentially expressed genes (DEGs), differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), and differentially methylated positions/regions (DMPs/DMRs), across multiple pairwise comparisons. Large biological studies can involve multiple conditions, tissues, and timepoints that result in dozens of pairwise comparisons. Manually filtering and comparing lists of DEEs across multiple pairwise comparisons, typically done by writing custom code, is a cumbersome task that can be streamlined and standardized. Results A-Lister is a lightweight command line and graphical user interface tool written in Python. It can be executed in a differential expression mode or generic name list mode. In differential expression mode, A-Lister accepts as input delimited text files that are output by differential expression tools such as DESeq2, edgeR, Cuffdiff, and limma. To allow for the most flexibility in input ID types, to avoid database installation requirements, and to allow for secure offline use, A-Lister does not validate or impose restrictions on entity ID names. Users can specify thresholds to filter the input file(s) by column(s) such as p-value, q-value, and fold change. Additionally, users can filter the pairwise comparisons within the input files by fold change direction (sign). Queries composed of intersection, fuzzy intersection, difference, and union set operations can also be performed on any number of pairwise comparisons. Thus, the user can filter and compare any number of pairwise comparisons within a single A-Lister differential expression command. In generic name list mode, A-Lister accepts delimited text files containing lists of names as input. Queries composed of intersection, fuzzy intersection, difference, and union set operations can then be performed across these lists of names. Conclusions A-Lister is a flexible tool that enables the user to rapidly narrow down large lists of DEEs to a small number of most significant entities. These entities can then be further analyzed using visualization, pathway analysis, and other bioinformatics tools.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12859-019-3121-xDifferential expression analysisDifferentially expressed genes (DEGs)Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs)Differentially methylated regions/positions (DMRs/DMPs)Python
spellingShingle Stanislav A. Listopad
Trina M. Norden-Krichmar
A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
BMC Bioinformatics
Differential expression analysis
Differentially expressed genes (DEGs)
Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs)
Differentially methylated regions/positions (DMRs/DMPs)
Python
title A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
title_full A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
title_fullStr A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
title_full_unstemmed A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
title_short A-Lister: a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
title_sort a lister a tool for analysis of differentially expressed omics entities across multiple pairwise comparisons
topic Differential expression analysis
Differentially expressed genes (DEGs)
Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs)
Differentially methylated regions/positions (DMRs/DMPs)
Python
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12859-019-3121-x
work_keys_str_mv AT stanislavalistopad alisteratoolforanalysisofdifferentiallyexpressedomicsentitiesacrossmultiplepairwisecomparisons
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