Essay --

Proteins control all biological systems in a cell. Some proteins are able to perform their tasks independently; while many other proteins within a cell interact with other proteins to function properly. Protein interactions within a cell regulate cell behavior at a systems level. Thus, elucidating the structure and dynamics of protein interaction networks in vivo is a central goal in biology. The identification of the protein interaction networks (PINs) inside a cell is crucial to understanding the fundamental questions about how a cell is able to organize matter, information and energy transformations to preform specific functions at a biochemical level. The discovery of novel protein-protein interactions and determining how these proteins function in a network is fundamental to understanding biological systems. This new way of studying biological systems is called interactomics. While several genomes of different species have been sequenced, many proteins that are encoded in the genome have yet to have their function or relevance determined. Although there is an increasing importance to map out protein interaction networks, the actual detection of protein-protein interactions is complicated. Proteins have various charges and numerous secondary and tertiary structures they can fold into. Also, there are countless parameters that can change their interactions with other proteins in the cell. Furthermore, many protein-protein interactions can be transient, in that they only are short lived or require specific condition to facilitate their interaction with other proteins. Several Methods have been used to study protein-protein interactions. However, one rarely addressed question is whether protein-protein interactio... ... broad overview of the structural and functional networks within a living cell. However, there are plenty more areas of the interactome that can be explored, such as the dynamics of the interactions as well as how different growth condition affect protein interaction networks. Also, a wide variety of different reporter genes can be used to study temporal and spatial interactions over a comprehensive range of time periods as well as other distresses. Furthermore, since the PCA can provide a reference for spatial dynamics of different protein-complex topologies since it is able to generate a map at 8nm resolution. The integration of the results found using the PCA technique with gene regulation dynamics and protein modification can lead to a better understanding about how cellular processes are organized at a molecular and structural level within a living cell.