This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 677, an undergraduate course at UW-Madison.
What is a Protein Interaction Network?
Often, the most important function of a protein involves interacting with other proteins. ANK1 is an excellent example of this, since its main purpose is to bind other membrane and cytokeletal proteins to each other, and it does that through protein-protein interactions. STRING is a database of information about protein interactions. Their interaction information comes from both literary sources or experimental sources, and this information can then be built into a visual network such as the one below. These network maps can be extremely useful in looking for information or patterns in ways that are impossible for more specific searches and paper trails.
Human Protein Network
Analysis
Ankyrin unsurprisingly interacts with many red blood cell cytoskeltal and membrane proteins, including SPTB, SPTA1,SLC4A1, and SPTAN1. Other proteins it interacts with including NRCAM, L1CAM, and NFASC are all involved in cell adhesion. Since red blood cells are not meant to adhere to each other and rather flow through the body, it is likely that these interactions are more important in ankyrin activity elsewhere in the body, such as in muscular tissue.
References
STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins). N.p., n.d. Web May 18. 2013.