Abstract
We present 'significance analysis of interactome' (SAINT), a computational tool that assigns confidence scores to protein-protein interaction data generated using affinity purification–mass spectrometry (AP-MS). The method uses label-free quantitative data and constructs separate distributions for true and false interactions to derive the probability of a bona fide protein-protein interaction. We show that SAINT is applicable to data of different scales and protein connectivity and allows transparent analysis of AP-MS data.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout


Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ewing, R.M. et al. Mol. Syst. Biol. 3, 89 (2007).
Gavin, A.C. et al. Nature 440, 631–636 (2006).
Jeronimo, C. et al. Mol. Cell 27, 262–274 (2007).
Krogan, N.J. et al. Nature 440, 637–643 (2006).
Nesvizhskii, A.I., Vitek, O. & Aebersold, R. Nat. Methods 4, 787–797 (2007).
Sardiu, M.E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 1454–1459 (2008).
Sowa, M.E., Bennett, E.J., Gygi, S.P. & Harper, J.W. Cell 138, 389–403 (2009).
Breitkreutz, A. et al. Science 328, 1043–1046 (2010).
Müller, P., Parmigiani, G & Rice, K. in Bayesian Statistics Vol. 8 (eds., Bernardo, J.M. et al.) 349–370 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Behrends, C., Sowa, M.E., Gygi, S.P. & Harper, J.W. Nature 466, 68–76 (2010).
Breitkreutz, B.J. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 36, D637–D640 (2008).
Turner, B. et al. Database (Oxford) 2010, baq023 (2010).
Hubner, N.C. et al. J. Cell Biol. 189, 739–754 (2010).
Rinner, O. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 25, 345–352 (2007).
Griffin, N.M. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 28, 83–89 (2010).
Eng, J.K., McCormack, A.L. & Yates, J.R.I. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 5, 976–989 (1994).
Ishwaran, H. & James, L.F. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 96, 161–173 (2001).
Acknowledgements
Supported by grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research to A.-C.G. (MOP-84314) and M.T. (MOP-12246); the US National Institutes of Health to M.T. (5R01RR024031), A.I.N. and A.-C.G. (R01-GM094231), and A.I.N. (R01-CA126239); a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and a Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance Research Chair to M.T.; a Canada Research Chair in Functional Proteomics to A.-C.G.; and the Lea Reichmann Chair in Cancer Proteomics to A.-C.G. We thank M. Sardiu, M. Washburn and M. Sowa for providing additional information regarding the datasets used in this work, G. Bader for discussions and W. Dunham for reading the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
H.C. and A.I.N. developed, implemented and tested the SAINT method; H.C. wrote the software; B.L., A.B., Z.-Y.L., A.-C.G. and M.T. generated data for the initial SAINT modeling and provided feedback on the model performance; D.M. and D.F. assisted with data analysis and processing; Z.S.Q. contributed to statistical model development; H.C., A.-C.G. and A.I.N. wrote the manuscript; A.I.N. and A.-C.G. conceived the study; A.I.N. directed the project with input from A.-C.G.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Text and Figures
Supplementary Figure 1 (PDF 239 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Data for the TIP49 dataset. (a) List of all detected interactions and scores from PP-NSAF, CompPASS and SAINT. (b) All interactions in control purifications were included in a separate table after merging of 35 technical replicate purifications into 9 purifications. (c) Table of technical replicates of control purifications. (d) GO terms enrichment in top scoring interactions for each scoring method. (XLS 1006 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Data for the DUB dataset. (a) List of all detected interactions and scores from CompPASS and SAINT. (b–d) GO terms enrichment in top scoring interactions for each scoring method. (XLS 3104 kb)
Supplementary Table 3
Data for the CDC23 dataset. List of all detected interactions with SAINT scores and results reported by t-test. (XLS 98 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Choi, H., Larsen, B., Lin, ZY. et al. SAINT: probabilistic scoring of affinity purification–mass spectrometry data. Nat Methods 8, 70–73 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1541
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1541
This article is cited by
-
Epigenetic inactivation of the 5-methylcytosine RNA methyltransferase NSUN7 is associated with clinical outcome and therapeutic vulnerability in liver cancer
Molecular Cancer (2023)
-
Impaired OTUD7A-dependent Ankyrin regulation mediates neuronal dysfunction in mouse and human models of the 15q13.3 microdeletion syndrome
Molecular Psychiatry (2023)
-
Proteomic characterization of the Toxoplasma gondii cytokinesis machinery portrays an expanded hierarchy of its assembly and function
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Human transcription factor protein interaction networks
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Histone chaperone ASF1 mediates H3.3-H4 deposition in Arabidopsis
Nature Communications (2022)