Protein Function Prediction from Protein Interaction Network: a Two Pass Neighborhood Approach

Proteins perform every function in a cell. With the advent of genome sequencing projects for different organisms, large amounts of DNA and protein sequence data is available, whereas their biological function is still unknown in the most of the cases. Predicting protein function is the most challenging problem in post-genomic era. Using sequence homology, phylogenetic profiles, gene expression data, and function of unknown protein can be predicted. Recently, the large interaction networks constructed from high throughput techniques like Yeast2Hybrid experiments are also used in prediction of protein function. As experimental techniques for detection and validation of protein interactions are time consuming, there is a need for computational methods for this task. Based on the concept that a protein performs similar function like its neighbor in protein interaction network, a method is proposed to predict protein function using protein-protein interaction data. This analysis should enlighten the path for predicting unannotated protein function hence identifying diseases and inventing methods of it's cureness.