Mining gene networks with application to GAW15 Problem 1.

The Genetic Analysis Workshop 15 (GAW15) Problem 1 contained baseline expression levels of 8793 genes in immortalized B cells from 194 individuals in 14 Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH) Utah pedigrees. Previous analysis of the data showed linkage and association and evidence of substantial individual variations. In particular, correlation was examined on expression levels of 31 genes and 25 target genes corresponding to two master regulatory regions. In this analysis, we apply Bayesian network analysis to gain further insight into these findings. We identify strong dependences and therefore provide additional insight into the underlying relationships between the genes involved. More generally, the approach is expected to be applicable for integrated analysis of genes on biological pathways.