Current approaches towards quantitative mapping of the interactome

• Main Authors: Alexander eBuntru, Philipp eTrepte, Konrad eKlockmeier, Sigrid eSchnoegl, Erich E. Wanker
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-05-01
• Series: Frontiers in Genetics
• Subjects: BRET; FRET; BiFC; PLA; FCCS; PPI analysis
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2016.00074/full

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play a key role in many, if not all, cellular processes. Disease is often caused by perturbation of PPIs, as recently indicated by studies of missense mutations. To understand the associations of proteins and to unravel the global picture of PPIs in the cell, different experimental detection techniques for PPIs have been established. Genetic and biochemical methods such as the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system or affinity purification-based approaches are well suited to high-throughput, proteome-wide screening and are mainly used to obtain qualitative results. However, they have been criticized for not reflecting the cellular situation or the dynamic nature of PPIs. In this review, we provide an overview of various genetic methods that go beyond qualitative detection and allow quantitative measuring of PPIs in mammalian cells, such as DULIP, FRET or LUMIER with BACON. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different techniques and their potential applications in biomedical research.