Discovering Protein Complexes in Protein Interaction Networks

In this chapter a survey on the main graph-based clustering techniques proposed in the literature to mine proteinprotein interaction networks (PINs) is presented. The detection of putative protein complexes is an important research problem in systems biology. In fact it may help in understanding the mechanisms regulating cell life, in deriving conservations across species, in predicting the biological functions of uncharacterized proteins, and, more importantly, for therapeutic purposes. Different kind of approaches are described and classified. Furthermore, some validation techniques commonly exploited in this context are illustrated. The goal of the chapter is to provide a useful guide and reference for both computer scientists and biologists. Computer scientists may have a complete vision of what has already been made and which are the new challenges about PINs clustering, taking them as a starting point for further researches and new proposals; on the other hand, biologists may find in the chapter the necessary material to select the most appropriate methods to apply for their specific purposes.