NemoMapPy: Motif-centric network motif search on a web

Abstract

Networks motifs, defined as statistically overrep-resented subgraph patterns in a network, are important to study because they are generally related to specific functional modules in the biological networks. Smaller sized network motifs are reasonably fast to detect with various programs. However, larger network motifs with more than 8 vertices, are difficult to study due to their heavy computational burden to detect and analyze. NemoMap, which is based on Grochow and Kellis' motif-centric algorithm, has been developed to overcome the issue. To increase the usability, and provide easy accessibility to NemoMap, we developed NemoMapPy as a web application. This was accomplished by porting the existing NemoMap program to Python then creating an intuitive and easy to use front-end. The result is a fully web accessible motif-centric network motif discovery tool on a web. NemoMapPy also reduces the runtime of NemoMap by on average 70% in sub-graphs larger than 10 nodes. Currently NemoMapPy is running as a part of NemoSuite which includes network-centric, motif-centric, and network motif visualization program.