Integrating the interactome and the transcriptome of Drosophila

Thilakam Murali, Svetlana Pacifico, Russell L Finley

Networks of interacting genes and gene products mediate most cellular and developmental processes. High throughput screening methods combined with literature curation are identifying many of the protein-protein interactions (PPI) and protein-DNA interactions (PDI) that constitute these networks. Most of the detection methods, however, fail to identify the in vivo spatial or temporal context of the interactions. Thus, the interaction data are a composite of the individual networks that may operate in specific tissues or developmental stages. Genome-wide expression data may be useful for filtering interaction data to identify the subnetworks that operate in specific spatial or temporal contexts. Here we take advantage of the extensive interaction and expression data available for Drosophila to analyze how interaction networks may be unique to specific tissues and developmental stages.