Computational Prediction of Host-Parasite Protein Interactions between P. falciparum and H. sapiens
Figure 3
Characteristics of predicted and external interactions.
(A) In the set of predicted interactions (PRE) a majority of host proteins interacted with a low number of pathogen proteins and vice versa. Such a result was confirmed by the set of external interaction data (EXT) as well as the combined set of host-parasite interactions (PRE+EXT). (B) Utilizing a network of human protein-protein interactions the enrichment of targeted human host proteins as a function of their number of interaction partners was determined. Considering all three sets of host-pathogen interactions separately highly connected host proteins appeared to be prime targets of the parasite.