Identifying Interface Elements Implied in Protein-Protein Interactions Using Statistical Tests and Frequent Item Sets

摘要

Understanding what are the characteristics of protein-protein interfaces is at the core of numerous applications.This paper introduces a method in which the proteins are described with surfacic geometrical elements. Starting froma database of known interfaces, the method produces the elementsand combinations thereof that are characteristic ofthe interfaces. This is done thanks to a frequent item settechnique and the use of statistical tests to ensure a markeddifference with a null hypothesis. This approach allows oneto easily interpret the results, as compared to techniquesthat operate as “black-boxes”. Furthermore, it is naturallyadapted to discover disjunctive concepts, i.e. differentunderlying processes. The results obtained on a set of459 protein-protein interfaces from the PDB database confirmthat the findings are consistent with current knowledgeabout protein-protein interfaces.