Predicting the consequences of mutations

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are involved in all critical cellular functions, and mutations in PPIs frequently lead to phenotypic changes that might cause a disease. In this chapter, the various effects that could result from mutations in PPIs such as destabilization/ stabilization of a complex, appearance/disappearance of posttranslational modifications, switching on/off of signaling pathways and coevolutionary effects have been summarized. Furthermore, the various computational tools that have been developed by the research community for the prediction of these mutational effects based on protein sequence, structure and PPI network analysis have been described. These computational tools help us obtaining better understanding of how PPIs evolve and how various mutations could lead to serious diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Ultimately such predictions facilitate discovery of drugs targeting specific PPIs and PPI-regulated networks.