Robust protein protein interactions in crowded cellular environments.

ABSTRACT: The capacity of proteins to interact specifically with one another underlies our conceptual understanding of how living systems function. Systems-level study of specificity in protein-protein interactions is complicated by the fact that the cellular environment is crowded and heterogeneous; interaction pairs may exist at low relative concentrations and thus be presented with many more opportunities for promiscuous interactions compared with specific interaction possibilities. Here we address these questions by using a simple computational model that includes specifically designed interacting model proteins immersed in a mixture containing hundreds of different unrelated ones; all of them undergo simulated diffusion and interaction. We find that specific complexes are quite robust to interf

SUBMITTER: Deeds EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1986594 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature