Mining Host-Pathogen Protein Interactions to Characterize Burkholderia mallei Infectivity Mechanisms
Fig 3
Focal adhesion pathway as a virulence factor target.
We identified the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) focal adhesion pathway as enriched with multiple virulence factor targets. The majority (17 of 20) of host proteins interacting with B. mallei virulence factors in this pathway belong to a connected sub-pathway of proteins (yellow boxes and red lines), mainly grouped at the beginning of the pathway. This observation implied that receptors and signaling molecules were likely B. mallei targets, corroborating previous observations that pathogens tend to interfere with host processes related to cell communication and actin cytoskeleton organization. The pathway diagram for the focal adhesion pathway was adapted from the KEGG pathway map [32] with permission from the KEGG database administrators.