Assembly and analysis of a comprehensive and unbiased phosphotyrosine-dependent protein-protein interaction network.

Protein-protein interactions govern cellular functions on the molecular level. Post-translational modifications alter these interactions allowing highly dynamic regulation. Protein tyrosine phosphorylation is an especially relevant post-trans- lational modification, because it is tightly linked to intercellular regulation of growth and development in metazoans. Diseases like cancer or autoimmune disorders arise from misregulation of these processes generating great medical interest in protein tyrosine phosphorylation and processes relating to it. This study provides a comprehensive set of 292 mostly novel, high-quality phospho- tyrosine-dependent protein-protein interactions detected in genome-scale yeast two-hybrid screens using full-length proteins filling a gap in phosphotyrosine signaling knowledge, which has so far been based largely on peptide binding and affinity purification-coupled mass spectrometry experiments. The high quality was demonstrated experimentally and computationally, in co-immunoprecip- itation and protein complementation assays, as well as over-representation analyses and comparison to prior knowledge. Previously reported linear peptide motifs are reflected in the binding partners, but clearly do not account for most of the interactions, emphasizing the relevance of full-length protein context. The interactions were further shown to form an unusually dense, monolithic network with a central core and reflect and expand phosphotyrosine-related KEGG pathways. Seven of the eight core proteins are well-established signaling hubs. The eighth core gene, SH2D2A, seems to play a more central role than currently appreciated. Finally, selected interactions involving GRB2 were shown to occur in different specific subcellular localizations. Together, these results strongly suggest that the interactions presented here represent an important step toward understanding growth and development and will benefit treatment of pressing medical issues substantially