The difference between fruit flies and humans

According to scientists who have discovered a new way to estimate the total number of interactions between proteins in any mechanism, fruit flies are different from humans not in the number of genes, but in numbers. The amount of protein interaction in their bodies.

A recent study published in the May 11, 2008, issue of the American Academy of Sciences shows that humans have 10 times more protein interactions than fruit flies, and 20 times more than other simple single-cell enamel microorganisms.

This is contrary to the comparisons between the number of genes in different microorganisms, while previous comparisons yield surprising results: humans have about 24,000 genes, but fruit flies are not much less. Very, about 14,000 genes.

The interaction between different proteins lies behind all physiological systems in the human body. When the body digests food, responds to changes in temperature, or repels infection, there are many combinations of protein interactions involved. However, so far it has been impossible to calculate the interaction numbers that occur in different microorganisms.

A recent study found that humans have 10 times more protein interactions than fruit flies.(Photo: iStockphoto)

Professor Michael Stumpf of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Royal College of London and one of the authors of the study explained the importance of the study:

'Sometimes scientists still believe that the complexity of a microbial protein interaction determines its biological complexity, but so far they still cannot put a size figure in the network. The interaction of a microorganism compared to other organisms as a small-scale study was conducted to identify and map these interactions'.

Scientists refer to the total number of protein interactions in the body such as 'molecular interactions in human cells' , comparing it to the human genome, which is related to supply. Give us human characteristics.

Professor Stumpf adds: 'Understanding the human genome is certainly not deep enough to explain what makes us different from simpler organisms. Our research shows that protein interactions can hold one of the key points to elucidate how an organism is distinguished from another organism. '

Researchers have invented a mathematical tool that allows them to predict the total size of an organism's protein interaction network based on currently incomplete data.

The researchers' next steps will be to make more detailed predictions based on careful comparisons between species. For example, it is important to understand why some fungal species, such as bread maker's yeast, are important in the production of bread and beer, while some other closely related fungi Causes fungal infections with high mortality.

Scientists at the Royal College of London, the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Biology in Germany and Arthus University of Denmark conducted the study.

Reference source:

1. Michael PH Stumpf, Thomas Thorne, Eric de Silva, Ronald Stewart, Hyeong Jun An, Michael Lappe, and Carsten Wiuf. Title: Estimate the size of the molecular interactions in human cells. Minutes of American Academy of Sciences 105: 6959-6964; published online on: 10.1073 / pnas.0708078105