Research
Structural analysis of hubs in human NR-RTK network
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* Corresponding author: Ahmed Rebaï ahmed.rebai@cbs.rnrt.tn
Molecular and Cellular Diagnosis Processes, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Sidi Mansour, Po Box 1177, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia
Biology Direct 2011, 6:49 doi:10.1186/1745-6150-6-49
Published: 5 October 2011Abstract
Background
Currently a huge amount of protein-protein interaction data is available therefore extracting meaningful ones are a challenging task. In a protein-protein interaction network, hubs are considered as key proteins maintaining function and stability of the network. Therefore, studying protein-protein complexes from a structural perspective provides valuable information for predicted interactions.
Results
In this study, we have predicted by comparative modelling and docking methods protein-protein complexes of hubs of human NR-RTK network inferred from our earlier study. We found that some interactions are mutually excluded while others could occur simultaneously. This study revealed by structural analysis the key role played by Estrogen receptor (ESR1) in mediating the signal transduction between human Receptor Tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and nuclear receptors (NRs).
Conclusions
Although the methods require human intervention and judgment, they can identify the interactions that could occur together or ones that are mutually exclusive. This adds a fourth dimension to interaction network, that of time, and can assist in obtaining concrete predictions consistent with experiments.
Open peer review
This article was reviewed by Dr. Anthony Almudevar, Prof. James Faeder and Prof. Eugene Koonin. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' comments.