Genetic landscape of an in vivo protein interactome.

Genetic variation influences in vivo protein-protein interaction strength, with 12,000 SNPs linked to 61 PPIs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, revealing significant piQTLs.

• Why it matters: Understanding how natural genetic variation affects PPIs is crucial for deciphering molecular responses to environmental changes and complex traits, yet remains largely unexplored.
• What they did: The study measured 61 reporter PPIs across inbred yeast strains with approximately 12,000 SNPs, identifying and validating protein-interaction quantitative trait loci (piQTLs) that connect genomic variation to PPI strength.
• The result: Trans-acting piQTLs, which often map to genes near the PPIs in network space, exhibit stronger effects than cis-acting ones and overlap more with protein abundance QTLs, suggesting PPI networks capture post-transcriptional regulation.