Towards a proteome-scale map of the human protein–protein interaction network

Systematic mapping of protein–protein interactions, or ‘interactome’ mapping, was initiated in model organisms, starting with defined biological processes1,2 and then expanding to the scale of the proteome3,4,5,6,7. Although far from complete, such maps have revealed global topological and dynamic features of interactome networks that relate to known biological properties8,9, suggesting that a human interactome map will provide insight into development and disease mechanisms at a systems level. Here we describe an initial version of a proteome-scale map of human binary protein–protein interactions. Using a stringent, high-throughput yeast two-hybrid system, we tested pairwise interactions among the products of ∼8,100 currently available Gateway-cloned open reading frames and detected ∼2,800 interactions. This data set, called CCSB-HI1, has a verification rate of ∼78% as revealed by an independent co-affinity purification assay, and correlates significantly with other biological attributes. The CCSB-HI1 data set increases by ∼70% the set of available binary interactions within the tested space and reveals more than 300 new connections to over 100 disease-associated proteins. This work represents an important step towards a systematic and comprehensive human interactome project.