In collaboration with the Finley lab, scientists at Curagen Corp., amplified 12,278 Drosophila open reading frames (ORFs) and subcloned them into the Gal4-based yeast two-hybrid system. Results from the interaction screens with these clones, in which 20,405 interactions were detected among ~7,048 proteins, have been published (Giot et al. 2003, Science 302, 1727-1726).

The Finley lab subcloned the same amplified ORFs into a modified LexA-based two-hybrid system. Initial screening with the LexA two-hybrid arrays has shown that interactions found in common with the Gal4 screens are enriched for high confidence interactions, but that the overlap between the LexA and Gal4 data is small, owing largely to the incomplete nature of both high throughput screens (Stanyon et al, 2004, Genome Biology 5, R96). In an effort to construct more comprehensive interaction maps, the Finley lab is continuing to screen the LexA arrays using a novel screening approach (Zhong et al., 2003, Genome Research 13, 2691-2699). Results from these screens will appear in DroID prior to, or immediately after they are published.

Our Drosophila protein interaction data is being made available to the public through the following databases.

DroID - The Drosophila Interactions Database www.DroIDb.org

Flybase.org (which provides links to DroID)

EMBL-EBI Intact

BioGRID