| dc.description.abstract | Currently there are several tools proposed for analysis of Transcription Factors (TF), such as
TFCheckpoint, JASPAR, SSTAR, GTRD, Enrichr. However, none of these tools offer a complete
experience in assessing the reliability of TF, checking if an analyzed protein is a TF and its association
with the target gene. Over time, numerous databases were built, all of them with rich information, but
the intrinsic complexity of the data, the volume of information, problems of nomenclature of the genes
and several other factors led these tools to do not offer a complete spectrum of analyses. On the other
hand, working with a large volume of data requires advanced computer skills. However, the general
public interested in analyzing these data are professionals from the biological areas, forming a barrier
since the academic formation of this area does not offer in its curricular components programming
disciplines. From this situation, this work aims to create a web tool exclusively for the analysis of TFs.
In this way, the Transcription Factor Analysis Tools (TFAT) was conceived and developed, containing
the integration of different databases and a set of scripts to manipulate this information, along with the
crucial parameters defined by the user in the analysis. The core of this tool is the analysis to identify
the key TFs in the modulation of gene transcription, namely the enrichment of the regulatory TFs of a
user-submitted gene list, which through the components of the tool, consults its database, identifies
the TFs that are associated with those genes and computes the p-value of enrichment. In addition, the
tool verifies TF reliability, makes available predictions, and converts items from a list to the Entrez
Gene's GeneID or Symbol. Another feature of this work is the use of TF reliability applied throughout
the tool. This degree of reliability takes into account evidences from different databases, experiments,
predictions and other characteristics of TFs. This reliability feature has a standard mode and a userdefined
parameter mode, which allows full customization through filters in the queries and analysis
control for the end user. | |
