MOfinder: A Novel Algorithm for Detecting Overlapping Modules from Protein-Protein Interaction Network

• Main Authors: Qi Yu, Gong-Hua Li, Jing-Fei Huang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
• Series: Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/103702

Since organism development and many critical cell biology processes are organized in modular patterns, many algorithms have been proposed to detect modules. In this study, a new method, MOfinder, was developed to detect overlapping modules in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. We demonstrate that our method is more accurate than other 5 methods. Then, we applied MOfinder to yeast and human PPI network and explored the overlapping information. Using the overlapping modules of human PPI network, we constructed the module-module communication network. Functional annotation showed that the immune-related and cancer-related proteins were always together and present in the same modules, which offer some clues for immune therapy for cancer. Our study around overlapping modules suggests a new perspective on the analysis of PPI network and improves our understanding of disease.