MGraph: graphical models for microarray data analysis

This paper introduces a MATLAB toolbox, MGraph, which applies graphical models as a natural environment to formulate and solve problems in microarray data analysis. MGraph with its graphical interface allows the user to predict genetic regulatory networks by a graphical gaussian model (GGM), and to quantify the effects of different experimental treatment conditions on gene expression profiles by a graphical log-linear model (GLM). The power of graphical models was explored and illustrated through two example applications. First, four MAPK pathways in yeast were meaningfully reconstructed through GGM. Second, GLM was used to quantify the contributions of sex, genotype and age to transcriptional variance in Drosophila melanogaster. This application may provide a valuable aid in the prediction of genetic regulatory networks, as well as in investigations of various experimental conditions that affect global gene expression profiles.