A neuro-genetic approach for inferring gene regulatory networks from gene expression data

Abstract

Accurate prediction of gene regulation rules is important for understanding complex life processes. Existing computational algorithms designed for bulk transcriptome datasets typically require a large number of time points to infer gene regulatory networks (GRNs), are suitable for a small number of genes, and cannot efficiently detect potential regulatory relationships. We propose an approach based on a deep learning framework to reconstruct GRNs from bulk transcriptome datasets, assuming that the expression levels of transcription factors involved in gene regulation are strong predictors of the expression of their target genes. The algorithm uses multilayer perceptrons to infer the regulatory relationship between multiple transcription factors and a gene, and uses genetic algorithms to search for the best regulatory gene combination. The results show that our approach is more accurate than other methods for reconstructing gene regulatory networks on real-world and simulated bulk transcriptome gene expression datasets.