MATH Seminar

Title: Topological and Functional Properties of Proteins in Protein-Protein Interaction Networks
Seminar: Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Speaker: Concettina Guerra of College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Contact: Michele Benzi, benzi@mathcs.emory.edu
Date: 2012-12-05 at 12:50PM
Venue: W306
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Abstract: I will discuss the connection between the topological properties of proteins in Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) networks and their biological relevance focusing on hubs, i.e. proteins with a large number of interacting partners. In particular, the following questions will be addressed: Do hub proteins tend to be more essential than non-hub proteins? Do they play a central role in modular organization of the protein interaction network? Are they more evolutionarily conserved? Are there structural properties that characterize hub proteins? I will then present recently developed algorithms for identifying groups of highly connected proteins, or complexes, that are evolutionary conserved. Given the networks of two organisms, the algorithms uncover sub-networks of proteins that relate in biological function and topology of interactions. The discovered conserved sub-networks have a general topology and need not to correspond to specific interaction patterns, so that they more closely fit the models of functional complexes proposed in the literature.