Cited by 103Protein Structure and DynamicsMachine Learning in BioinformaticsEnzyme Structure and Function

From interaction networks to interfaces, scanning intrinsically disordered regions using AlphaFold2

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Bret, Hélène, Gao, Jinmei, Zea, Diego Javier, Andreani, Jessica, Guerois, Raphaël·2024·Nature Communications

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

The revolution brought about by AlphaFold2 opens promising perspectives to unravel the complexity of protein-protein interaction networks. The analysis of interaction networks obtained from proteomics experiments does not systematically provide the delimitations of the interaction regions. This is of particular concern in the case of interactions mediated by intrinsically disordered regions, in which the interaction site is generally small. Using a dataset of protein-peptide complexes involving intrinsically disordered regions that are non-redundant with the structures used in AlphaFold2 training, we show that when using the full sequences of the proteins, AlphaFold2-Multimer only achieves 40% success rate in identifying the correct site and structure of the interface. By delineating the interaction region into fragments of decreasing size and combining different strategies for integrating evolutionary information, we manage to raise this success rate up to 90%. We obtain similar success rates using a much larger dataset of protein complexes taken from the ELM database. Beyond the correct identification of the interaction site, our study also explores specificity issues. We show the advantages and limitations of using the AlphaFold2 confidence score to discriminate between alternative binding partners, a task that can be particularly challenging in the case of small interaction motifs.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-023-44288-7

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  • Together with the extensive interface between the CTF18 complex and POLE1, these interactions would position the catalytic, N-terminal domain of Pol ε adjacent to CMG's rear exit channel.

    “Together with the extensive interface between the CTF18 complex and POLE173, these interactions would position the catalytic, N-terminal domain of Pol ε adjacent to CMG’s rear exit channel”

    From Predictomes, a classifier-curated database of AlphaFold-modeled protein-protein interactions (2025) · cites this paper as [73]

    The Results passages on binding interfaces discuss AlphaFold2 predictions for protein–peptide complexes, not the proposed position of Pol ε beside CMG’s rear exit channel. Searches for CTF18, POLE1, CMG, and the catalytic N-terminal domain found no passage in our copy addressing that arrangement. (LLM, conf=0.77)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [29]Evans R., et al. Protein complex prediction with AlphaFold-Multimer. bioRxiv, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.04.463034v2 (2022). · DOI

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Authors
Bret, H., Gao, J., Zea, D. J., Andreani, J., & Guerois, R.
Affiliations
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2024-01-18
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
597-597
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4390986414
Cited by
103
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1
FWCI
13.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE45-0005)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Enzyme Structure and Function
Keywords
intrinsically disordered regions, protein-protein interfaces, interaction site prediction, AlphaFold2, AlphaFold2-Multimer, protein-peptide complex, protein complexes, evolutionary information, interaction networks
MeSH terms
Biological Evolution, Protein Binding, Proteins, Protein Interaction Maps, Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

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