ITR: Development of an Integrated Computational and Experimental Approach to Predict Biological Networks in Halobacterium sp

EIA - 0220153

Hood, Leroy

Institute for Systems Biology

TITLE: Development of an integrated computational and experimental approach to predict biological networks in Halobacterium sp.

The extremely halophilic archaeon Halobacterium sp. NRC-1, whose sequenced genome contains 2,630 genes, is being used as a model for predicting biological networks in microbial systems. The genes are compared across species to identify putative protein interactions by integrating identified protein/protein interactions from orthologous proteins, domain gene fusions, gene localization, and mRNA and protein expression data using both existing and new algorithms. The functional biomodules are being determined by integrating this information with additional information from biochemical pathways, shared promoter motifs, and a new protein distance algorithm. These approaches are then integrated into a visualization and integration platform, Cytoscape, being developed at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB).