The Red Blood Cell Proteome and Interactome: An Update

Although a preliminary portrait of the red blood cell proteome and interactome has already been provided, the recent identification of 1578 gene products from the erythrocyte cytosol asks for an updated and improved view. In this paper, we exploit data available from recent literature to compile a nonredundant list of 1989 proteins and elaborate it with pathway and network analyses. Upon network analysis, it is intuitively confirmed that red blood cells likely suffer of exacerbated oxidative stress and continuously strive against protein and cytoskeletal damage. It also emerges that erythrocyte interaction networks display a high degree of maturity. Indeed, a series of core proteins were individuated to play a central role. A catalytic ring of proteins counteracting oxidative stress was individuated as well. In parallel, pathway analysis confirmed the validity of observations about the SEC23B gene role in CDA II in a fast and unbiased way.