Analyzing protein–protein interactions in the post-interactomic era. Are we ready for the endgame?

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications Vol. 445; no. 4; pp. 739 - 745
• Main Author: Johnsson, Nils
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 21.03.2014
• Subjects: Animals; Constraint interaction networks; Humans; Protein interaction; Protein Interaction Mapping - methods; Protein Interaction Maps; Proteins - metabolism; Proteomics - methods; SPLIFF; Split-Ubiquitin; Systems Biology - methods; Constraint interaction networks; Split-Ubiquitin; Protein interaction; SPLIFF
• ISSN: 0006-291X; 1090-2104
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.02.023

•Experimental procedures complement computational tools to structure networks.•Probing networks in vivo reveals competition and dependencies between its edges.•A bottom-up approach might be used to assemble large from small networks. Mapping protein–protein interactions in genome-wide scales revealed thousands of novel binding partners in each of the explored model organisms. Organizing these hits in comprehensive ways is becoming increasingly important for systems biology approaches to understand complex cellular processes and diseases. However, proteome wide interaction techniques and their resulting global networks are not revealing the topologies of networks that are truly operating in the cell. In this short review I will discuss which prerequisites have to be fulfilled and which experimental methods might be practicable to translate primary protein interaction data into network presentations that help in understanding cellular processes.