Computational methods for the prediction of protein-protein interactions

Abstract

Broad and extensive knowledge of the biological function of proteins would have great practical impact on the identification of novel drug targets, and on finding the molecular causes of diseases. The experimental in vitro determination of protein function is an expensive and time consuming process. As a consequence, the development of computational techniques to complement and guide the experimental process is a crucial step for biological analysis in the post-genomic era. The prediction of molecular interactions is an important component in functional annotation Here we shortly describe two approaches to tackle this problem. One approach is structure-based and consists of identifying possible regions of interface on the surface of proteins. A second approach is to transfer a reliable interaction from a species to another species when both species are represented by networks of experimentally determined interactions. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.