PathBLAST

PathBLAST aligns protein interaction network paths across species to identify evolutionarily conserved protein pathways and complexes.

Key Features:

• Network Alignment: Aligns pairs of protein interaction paths between species and identifies high-scoring alignments that pair proteins in a query path with their putative orthologs occurring in the same order in a target path.
• Functional Annotation: Infers functional annotations of proteins and interaction pathways by leveraging similarity to well-characterized networks from other species.
• Ranked Results and Visualization: Returns a ranked list of matching paths from the target network and provides graphical representations highlighting overlaps among matching paths.
• Extensive Network Database: Supports protein-protein interaction networks for Helicobacter pylori, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, and Drosophila melanogaster.

Scientific Applications:

• Evolutionary Studies: Identifying conservation and divergence of protein interaction networks and pathways across organisms.
• Functional Genomics: Annotating unknown proteins by mapping them to conserved pathways and complexes in other species.
• Pathway Analysis: Detecting conserved pathways and complexes that may underlie fundamental biological processes.

Methodology:

Performs pairwise alignment of protein interaction paths across species, scores alignments by matching putative orthologs in conserved order, and returns ranked matching paths.