Identifying Components of Complexes

Identifying and analyzing components of complexes is essential to understand the activities and organization of the cell. Moreover, it provides additional information on the possible function of proteins involved in these complexes. Two bioinformatics approaches are usually used for this purpose. The first is based on the identification, by clustering algorithms, of full or densely connected sub-graphs in protein—protein interaction networks derived from experimental sources that might represent complexes. The second approach consists of the integration of genomic and proteomic data by using Bayesian networks or decision trees. This approach is based on the hypothesis that proteins involved in a complex usually share common properties.