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Proteomics

Interacting maps

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 5, pages 84–85 (2004)Cite this article

From a draft map of 7,048 proteins and 20,405 interactions, Jonathan Rothberg and colleagues have produced a high-confidence Drosophila melanogaster interactome map of 4,679 proteins and 4,780 interactions — to do this, they developed a computational method (a statistical model that incorporates experimental data) to assign confidence to the interactions. These authors found that the interactome map not only recreated known pathways, but that it also extended them and identified new pathway components. They also found that the protein–protein interactions were organized on both a local and a global level — this organization is thought to represent the formation of multiprotein complexes and intercomplex connections, respectively.

For Caenorhabditis elegans, Marc Vidal and colleagues identified 4,027 interactions, which they validated using a second, independent protein interaction assay. They then combined these interactions with previously identified interactions (found for specific processes, such as vulval development and germline formation) and those predicted by in silico searches for interactions that are known to exist for orthologues in other species. The result, Worm Interactome version 5 (WI5), contains 5,534 interactions and connects 15% of the C. elegans proteome. Interestingly, by showing that ancient, multicellular and worm-specific proteins interact with each other equally well, these authors also add weight to the theory that evolution creates new structures by modifying pre-existing ones.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Giot, L. et al. A protein interaction map of Drosophila melanogaster. Science 302, 1727–1736 (2003)

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  2. Li, S. et al. A map of the interactome network of the metazoan C. elegans. Science 2 Jan 2004 (doi:10.1126/science.1091403)

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Authors
  1. Natalie Wilson
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CuraGen Corporation

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Wilson, N. Interacting maps. Nat Rev Genet 5, 84–85 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1285

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1285

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