Protein-protein interactions refer to the association of protein molecules and the study of these associations from the perspective of biochemistry and networks.

The interactions between proteins are important for many biological functions. For example, signals from the exterior of a cell are mediated to the inside of that cell by protein-protein interactions of the signalling molecules see e. g. the Mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling cascade.

Protein-protein interactions can be classified by the function of the interaction, or by the time-scale of the interaction, which are related. Proteins might interact for a long time to form part of a protein complex, a protein may be carrying another protein (for example, from cytoplasm to nucleus or viceversa in the case of the nuclear pore importins), or a protein may interact briefly with another protein just to modify it (for example, a protein kinase will add a phosphate to a target protein).

See also

Protein interaction databases

• IntAct Interaction Database is a public repository for manually curated molecular interaction data from literature.

Biochemistry