The Caenorhabditis elegans Interactome Mapping Project

With the near availability of a cloned Caenorhabditis elegans ORFeome, the development of a high-throughput worm interactome mapping project has now become feasible. After reviewing the increasing interest for C. elegans as a model organism, from ”classical“ biology to the post-genomic era, this article presents the early steps accomplished for the generation of a C. elegans protein interaction map using the twohybrid system. Different approaches have been examined in order to determine the appropriate strategy to screen protein-protein interactions on a large scale. Our version of the two-hybrid system has been used to generate prototype maps for 4 different C. elegans biological modules (vulval development, proteasome, DNA repair / cell cycle and dauer). Those pilot projects helped us developing experimental procedures to avoid most false positive protein interactions while covering a satisfactory proportion of geniune interactions. In silico analysis and experimental validation of the potential protein interactions have already demonstrated biological relevance for some of the networks of interactions obtained.