WNT proteins are involved from initial of neural tissue specification to the end of cell fate determination and organ development. The present work was carried out to understand the involvement of different WNT isoforms (WNT3a, WNT5a and WNT7b) in neural development. A total of 718, 546 and 1004 PPIs for WNT3a, WNT5a and WNT7b respectively, were predicted by STRING database with confidence score more than 0.400. A network carrying all the selected PPIs of targeted proteins was constructed by using Cytoscape by assigning source node, target node and combined score as edge attribute. A total 2268 interactions of WNT3a, WNT5a and WNT7b were predicted to be involved in multiple signaling pathways and developmental processes. 43 of 2268 PPIs were refined after analyzing role of targeted proteins specifically in brain and neural development. WNT3a, WNT5a and WNT7a were predicted to be interacting with 18, 17 and 11 proteins, respectively, with average node degree score of 1.89, 2.12 and 1.82 respectively. The CytoHubba algorithm identified WNT3a, WNT5a, and WNT7b as hub proteins in neural development ranked on the basis of EPC (Edge Percolated Component) score of 9.352, 9.258 and 8.387.
Keywords: Cell signaling; Cytoscape; Frizzled; PPI; STRING; beta-catenin.