Exploring Cross-Function Domain Interaction Map

Living cells are sustained not by individual activities but rather by coordinated summative efforts of different biological functional modules. While recent research works have focused largely on finding individual functional modules, this paper attempts to explore the connections or relationships between different cellular functions through cross-function domain interaction maps. Exploring such a domain interaction map can help understand the underlying inter-function communication mechanisms. To construct a cross-function domain interaction map from existing genome-wide protein-protein interaction datasets, we propose a two-step procedure. First, we infer conserved domain-domain interactions from genome-wide protein-protein interactions of yeast, worm and fly. We then build a cross-function domain interaction map that shows the connections of different functions through various conserved domain interactions. The domain interaction maps reveal that conserved domain-domain interactions can be found in most detected cross-functional relationships and a few domains play pivotal roles in these relationships. Another important discovery in the paper is that conserved domains correspond to highly connected protein hubs that connect different functional modules together.