Evidence of probabilistic behaviour in protein interaction networks.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Data from high-throughput experiments of protein-protein interactions are commonly used to probe the nature of biological organization and extract functional relationships between sets of proteins. What has not been appreciated is that the underlying mechanisms involved in assembling these networks may exhibit considerable probabilistic behaviour.

Results

We find that the probability of an interaction between two proteins is generally proportional to the numerical product of their individual interacting partners, or degrees. The degree-weighted behaviour is manifested throughout the protein-protein interaction networks studied here, except for the high-degree, or hub, interaction areas. However, we find that the probabilities of interaction between the hubs are st

SUBMITTER: Ivanic J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2267158 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature