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Updated: May 17, 2026

A Comparative Approach to Characterize the Landscape of Host-Pathogen Protein-Protein Interactions
Published on: July 18, 2013
Similar pathogen targets in Arabidopsis thaliana and homo sapiens protein networks
Paulo Shakarian1, J Kenneth Wickiser
1Paulo Shakarian Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, USA. paulo@shakarian.net
Abstract:
We study the behavior of pathogens on host protein networks for humans and Arabidopsis - noting striking similarities. Specifically, we preform [Formula: see text]-shell decomposition analysis on these networks - which groups the proteins into various "shells" based on network structure. We observe that shells with a higher average degree are more highly targeted (with a power-law relationship) and that highly targeted nodes lie in shells closer to the inner-core of the network. Additionally, we also note that the inner core of the network is significantly under-targeted. We show that these core proteins may have a role in intra-cellular communication and hypothesize that they are less attacked to ensure survival of the host. This may explain why certain high-degree proteins are not significantly attacked.
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