MOTIVATION Transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of gene expression, and can activate or repress multiple target genes, forming regulatory units, or regulons. Understanding downstream effects of these regulators includes evaluating how TFs cooperate or compete within regulatory networks. Here we present RTNduals, an R/Bioconductor package that implements a general method for analyzing pairs of regulons. RESULTS RTNduals identifies a dual regulon when the number of targets shared between a pair of regulators is statistically significant. The package extends the RTN (Reconstruction of Transcriptional Networks) package, and uses RTN transcriptional networks to identify significant co-regulatory associations between regulons. The Supplementary Information reports two case studies for TFs using the METABRIC and TCGA breast cancer cohorts. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION RTNduals is written in the R language, and is available from the Bioconductor project at http://bioconductor.org/packages/RTNduals/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

中文翻译：

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RTNduals：R / Bioconductor软件包，用于分析双调节子的共调节和推论。

动机转录因子（TFs）是基因表达的关键调控因子，可以激活或抑制多个靶基因，形成调控单位或调节子。了解这些监管机构的下游影响包括评估TF如何在监管网络内合作或竞争。在这里，我们介绍RTNduals，这是一种R / Bioconductor程序包，它实现了用于分析成对的调节子的通用方法。结果当一对调节器之间共享的靶标数量在统计上显着时，RTNduals会识别一个双重调节子。该软件包扩展了RTN（转录网络的重建）软件包，并使用RTN转录网络来识别调节子之间的重要共调节关联。补充信息报告了使用METABRIC和TCGA乳腺癌研究对象进行的TF的两个案例研究。可用性和实现RTNduals用R语言编写，可从Bioconductor项目的http://bioconductor.org/packages/RTNduals/获得。补充信息补充数据可从Bioinformatics在线获得。