Protein production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for systems biology studies

Proteins together with metabolites, nucleic acids, lipids, and other intracellular molecules form biological systems that involve networks of functional and physical interactions. To understand these interactions and the many other characteristics of proteins in the context of biochemical networks and systems biology, research aimed at studying medium and large sets of proteins is required. This either involves an investigation focused on individual protein activities in the mixture (e.g., cell extracts) or a protein characterization in the isolated form. This chapter provides an overview on the currently available resources and strategies for isolation of proteins from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The use of standardized gene expression systems is discussed, and protein production protocols applied to the data generation pipeline for systems biology are described in detail.