Visualization of Biological Networks Using NetBioV

This chapter introduces a new visualization tool for biological networks, implemented within the programming environment R and called NetBioV. Network visualization in Biology along with other information provide a powerful framework for discovery-driven data analyses, including the identification of key genes, key interactions, as well as group of genes that are part of the same functional group. The chapter shows comparison between NetBioV and some of the most popular network visualization packages. NetBioV not only provides many easy-to-use functions, layout styles, and color schemes to visualize biological networks but also enables to highlight structural properties of the networks. It provides three main architecture layouts, namely the global, modular, and layered. The chapter implements an algorithm, which highlights the shortest paths between modules or nodes in the modular and layered network layouts. Highlighting such information is useful for visualizing the key connections between nodes or modules.