Kronos: A computational tool to facilitate biological rhythmicity analysis

Abstract

MotivationCircadian rhythms, or 24-hour biological cycles, are key in maintaining health in almost all living organisms and synchronize important physiological and behavioural processes daily. Interest in circadian rhythm research is expanding as our urban environments have increased exposure to factors that can disrupt the normal physiological rhythm of our body, such as delayed bedtimes, shift work, jet-lag, increased screen-time, and exposure to artificial light. Discovering how oscillatory signals respond to both external and internal factors can lead to important biological breakthroughs, but assessing rhythmicity can be both limited by the complexity of statistical models and demanding in terms of coding and statistical expertise. ImplementationHere, we describe the development of a novel easy-to-use R-based tool, Kronos, to assess circadian rhythms in biological data sets. Kronos provides the user with new functionalities not currently available, including the analysis of two or more groups in complex study designs, handling both independent and repeated-measures data, as well as ranging from single variables to high dimensional omics data sets. Kronos is a novel tool to facilitate the analysis of rhythmicity in simple and complex experimental designs and enables researchers from diverse scientific fields to interrogate rhythmicity. Availabilityhttps://github.com/thomazbastiaanssen/kronos