Navigating the global protein-protein interaction landscape using iRefWeb

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics
• Computational Biology
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are fundamental to cellular processes.
• Curating and accessing PPI data from diverse sources is challenging.
• Existing resources often lack comprehensive integration and advanced search functionalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present iRefWeb, a consolidated bioinformatics resource for protein-protein interaction data.
• To provide versatile tools for searching, filtering, and assessing the reliability of PPIs.
• To facilitate access to PPI data across a wide range of organisms.

Main Methods:

• Data consolidation from 14 major public PPI databases.
• Development of advanced search and filtering options for PPIs and protein complexes.
• Integration of evidence-based reliability criteria for PPI assessment.
• Inclusion of publication-specific annotations and data.

Main Results:

• iRefWeb provides access to a large, integrated collection of PPI data.
• The resource supports retrieval of interactions by organism or protein.
• Users can filter interactions based on evidence and assess reliability.
• Detailed annotations for publications describing interaction experiments are available.

Conclusions:

• iRefWeb serves as a valuable, freely accessible bioinformatics resource for researchers.
• The platform enhances the study of protein-protein interactions and complexes.
• It simplifies data retrieval and analysis for a broad scientific community.