WeCoNET

WeCoNET provides integrated functional annotations and interactomics analyses to characterize molecular interactions between wheat and the common bunt pathogens Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis.

Key Features:

• Host-pathogen interactomics: Predicts protein-protein interactions between wheat and Tilletia species to identify molecular contacts involved in infection and defense.
• Network visualization: Visualizes predicted molecular interaction networks to explore complex host-pathogen relationships.
• BLAST search module: Enables sequence similarity searches using BLAST to locate homologous proteins and annotations.
• Keywords-based search: Supports retrieval of specific proteins and interactions using keyword queries.
• Functional annotations: Provides gene ontology terms, functional domain annotations, and predicted subcellular localization for host and pathogen proteins.
• Effector and secretory protein catalog: Includes predicted effector and secretory proteins from Tilletia caries and Tilletia laevis with descriptive annotations.
• Host transcription factor prediction: Predicts host transcription factors, assigns them to families, and links them to associated KEGG pathways.

Scientific Applications:

• Infection mechanism elucidation: Analyze predicted host-pathogen protein interactions and effector repertoires to investigate molecular mechanisms of common bunt infection.
• Effector discovery: Identify and characterize Tilletia effector and secretory proteins for functional studies.
• Regulatory pathway mapping: Map wheat transcription factors and associated KEGG pathways to study plant defense responses.
• Network-driven target prioritization: Use interaction networks and functional annotations to prioritize candidate host or pathogen proteins for experimental validation or breeding efforts.

Methodology:

Features explicitly include protein-protein interaction prediction (host-pathogen interactomics), network visualization, BLAST-based sequence search, keywords-based retrieval, functional annotation with gene ontology, domain and subcellular localization prediction, effector and secretory protein prediction, and host transcription factor prediction with KEGG pathway association.