Reconstruction and crosstalk of protein-protein interaction networks of Wnt and Hedgehog signaling in Drosophila melanogaster

- The newly reconstructed Wnt/β-catenin signaling network in Drosophila melanogaster consists of 656 proteins and 1253 interactions whereas Hedgehog signaling network consists of 523 proteins and 945 interactions among these proteins. Both networks have small-world and scale-free topology, they possess the general characteristic of complex biological networks.
- According to the results of structural network analyses, the proteins Arm, Frizzled receptors (Fz and Fz2), Arr, Apc, Axn, Ci and Ptc were detected as the key proteins in these networks. The hub protein Mer having tumor suppressor function may be proposed as a putative drug target for cancer and deserves further investigation via experimental methods.
- Crosstalk analysis revealed that 477 proteins are common between the reconstructed Wnt/β-catenin and Hedgehog networks and it can be concluded that these two signaling networks crosstalk to each other.