p53MutaGene: an online tool to estimate the effect of p53 mutational status on gene regulation in cancer.

p53MutaGene is the first online tool for statistical validation of hypotheses regarding the effect of p53 mutational status on gene regulation in cancer. This tool is based on several large-scale clinical gene expression data sets and currently covers breast, colon and lung cancers. The tool detects differential co-expression patterns in expression data between p53 mutated versus p53 normal samples for the user-specified genes. Statistically significant differential co-expression for a gene pair is indicative that regulation of two genes is sensitive to the presence of p53 mutations. p53MutaGene can be used in 'single mode' where the user can test a specific pair of genes or in 'discovery mode' designed for analysis of several genes. Using several examples, we demonstrate that p53MutaGene is a useful tool for fast statistical validation in clinical data of p53-dependent gene regulation patterns. The tool is freely available at http://www.bioprofiling.de/tp53.