Protein interaction networks related to differences in infection susceptibility in Trypanosoma congolense infected mice

Trypanosoma congolense, which infects cattle in sub-Saharan Africa, is a serious constraint on husbandry. Some breeds of cattle are badly affected, whereas others show some resistance.

There is a possible mouse model that may be helpful in developing understanding of the mechanisms underlying the observed resistance. i.e. there are strains of mice that are tolerant and others that are highly susceptible to the disease.

In this project microarray data from different mouse strains and different tissues were integrated with a mouse protein interaction network.

Functional groups in a mouse protein interaction network

Functional groups in a mouse protein interaction network

The network was analysed using Cytoscape (Shannon et al., 2003) and its plugins, so building on skills developed in the modules Introduction to Microarray Data Analysis and Bioinformatics for Systems Biology.

Shannon P, Markiel A, Ozier O, Baliga NS, Wang JT, Ramage D, Amin N, Schwikowski B, Ideker T.
Cytoscape: a software environment for integrated models of biomolecular interaction networks.
Genome Research 2003 Nov; 13(11):2498-504

Distance learning in computational biology Research projects in computational biology