Computational Resources for Predicting Protein-Protein Interactions

Abstract

Proteins are the essential building blocks and functional components of a cell. They account for the vital functions of an organism. Proteins interact with each other and form protein interaction networks. These protein interactions play a major role in all the biological processes and pathways. The previous methods of predicting protein interactions were experimental which focused on a small set of proteins or a particular protein. However, these experimental approaches are low-throughput as they are time-consuming and require a significant amount of human effort. This led to the development of computational techniques that uses high-throughput experimental data for analyzing protein-protein interactions. The main purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the computational advancements and tools for the prediction of protein interactions. The major databases for the deposition of these interactions are also described. The advantages, as well as the specific limitations of these tools, are highlighted which will shed light on the computational aspects that can help the biologist and researchers in their research.

Keywords: Protein–protein interaction; Protein–protein interaction databases; Protein–protein interaction networks; Protein–protein interaction tools.