The biological interactions of living organisms, and protein-protein interactions in particular, are astonishingly diverse and present numerous challenges to modern biomolecular research because of their complexity. Analysis of patterns and principles governing these interactions has prompted a rapid development of computational methods to identify protein interaction partners and to understand the roles of individual components of protein interaction networks in cell functions.

This book integrates different approaches from bioinformatics, biochemistry, computational analysis and systems biology to offer the reader a comprehensive global view of the diverse data on protein-protein interactions and protein interaction networks. It brings together the descriptions of experimental techniques and expounds on different computational algorithms for protein network analysis and prediction of protein and domain interactions, with each chapter containing a description of the problem, a review of methods and algorithms, a list of resources and current conclusions.

Features

a [ Reviews experimental techniques for identification of protein interactions

a [ Discusses protein interaction databases and methods of integrating data from diverse sources

a [ Describes computational methods to predict protein and domain interaction partners

a [ Explores the properties of interaction interfaces and highlights approaches to model the assembly of protein complexes

a [ Examines the topological and dynamical properties of protein interaction networks and presents the tools for comparative analysis of these networks

Written by leading experts, Protein-protein Interactions and Networksprovides a broad, thorough and multidisciplinary coverage of this field. It will be invaluable to researchers from academia and the bioinformatics industry, as well as an excellent auxiliary text for graduate students studying the topic.

The biological interactions of living organisms, and protein-protein interactions in particular, are astonishingly diverse. This comprehensive book provides a broad, thorough and multidisciplinary coverage of its field. It integrates different approaches from bioinformatics, biochemistry, computational analysis and systems biology to offer the reader a comprehensive global view of the diverse data on protein-protein interactions and protein interaction networks.

This volume contains the papers selected for presentation at the 4th Brazilian Sym- sium on Bioinformatics, BSB 2009, which was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, during August 29-31, 2009. The BSB symposium had its origins in the Brazilian Workshop on Bioinformatics (WOB). WOB had three editions, in 2002 (Gramado, RS), in 2003 (Macae, RJ), and in 2004 (Brasilia, DF). The change in the designation from wo- shop to symposium reflects the increase in the quality of the contributions and also in the interest of the scientific community for the meeting. The previous editions of BSB took place in Sao Leopoldo, RS, in 2005, in Angra dos Reis, RJ, in 2007, and in Santo Andre, SP, in 2008. As evidence of the internationalization of the event, BSB 2009 had 55 submissions from seven countries. Of the 55 papers submitted, 36 were full papers, with up to 12 pages each, and 19 were extended abstracts, with up to 4 pages each. The articles submitted were carefully reviewed and selected by an international Program Comm- tee, comprising three chairs and 45 members from around the world, with the help of 21 additional reviewers. The Program Committee Chairs are very thankful to the - thors of all submitted papers, and especially to the Program Committee members and the additional reviewers, who helped select the 12 full papers and the six extended abstracts that make up this book.