Defining viral protein interactomes using the yeast two-hybrid assay

The yeast two-hybrid assay has proved a powerful tool in identifying and characterising binary protein-protein interactions. Not only can it be used to map interacting protein domains, it can also be used to screen cDNA libraries with a desired bait to identify novel binding partners. A number of factors including ease of use, cost effectiveness and suitability for high throughput analysis have made yeast-two hybrid one of the assays of choice for defining protein-protein interaction networks or interactomes for a range of organisms. The focus of this review is on the definition of viral interactomes using the yeast two-hybrid assay and the relevance of such studies to our understanding of viral pathogenesis.