This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, an undergraduate capstone course at UW-Madison.
What are protein interaction networks?
Proteins often interact with other proteins to carry out a specific cellular process. Different interactions can aid or hinder this, depending on what types of proteins are physically interacting with one another. Interaction networks display the web of connections a specified protein has with other proteins. These networks can suggest what the function of the specified protein is, depending on what types of proteins it interacts with. In the case of SNRPN, the interaction network shows its extensive connections with spliceosome assembly proteins and proteins belonging to the snRNP complex, inferring that SNRPN is one component of the multiprotein assembly required to carry out mRNA processing/splicing [1].
Analysis
In both the human SNRPN and mouse SNRPN homolog interaction networks above, all of the primary interactions are with spliceosomal assembly proteins and proteins implicated in mRNA splicing. This justifies that SNRPN is just a single protein required in a multi-component complex to carryout RNA processing so that functional transcripts may exit the cell and be translated into proteins.
References
[1] STRING: SNRPN human <http://string-db.org/cgi/network.pl?taskId=jrHjvRqT1AAN&sessionId=pzwt5K6FnDlx>
[2] STRING: SNRPN mouse <http://string-db.org/cgi/network.pl?taskId=sh9jhmYAotK8>
[2] STRING: SNRPN mouse <http://string-db.org/cgi/network.pl?taskId=sh9jhmYAotK8>