title: Network types and their application in natural variation studies in plants.
abstract: We are in the age of data-driven biology. Not even a decade after the invention of high-throughput sequencing technologies, there are methods that accurately monitor DNA polymorphisms, transcription profiles, methylation states, transcription factor binding sites, chromatin compactness, nucleosome positions, dynamic histone marks, and so on. We are starting to generate comparable amounts of protein or metabolite data. A key issue is how are we going to make sense of all this information. Network analysis is the most promising method to integrate, query and display large amounts of data for human interpretation. This review shortly summarizes the basic types of networks, their properties and limitations. In addition, I introduce the application of networks to the study of the molecular mechanisms behind natural phenotypic variation.
authors.affiliation: INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR 1318, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Versailles, France; Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Carl-von-Linné-Weg 10, 50829 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: jose.jimenez-gomez@versailles.inra.fr.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Gómez
mesh_terms: D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010641:Phenotype; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*