Inference of Gene Regulatory Networks via Boolean Networks Using Regression Coefficients

Boolean networks(BN) construction is one of the commonly used methods for building gene networks from time series microarray data. However, BN has two major drawbacks. First, it requires heavy computing times. Second, the binary transformation of the microarray data may cause a loss of information. This paper propose two methods using liner regression to construct gene regulatory networks. The first proposed method uses regression based BN variable selection method, which reduces the computing time significantly in the BN construction. The second method is the regression based network method that can flexibly incorporate the interaction of the genes using continuous gene expression data. We construct the network structure from the simulated data to compare the computing times between Boolean networks and the proposed method. The regression based network method is evaluated using a microarray data of cell cycle in Caulobacter crescentus.