Capturing cellular machines by systematic screens of protein complexes

Two recent studies have provided the most complete screen for protein complexes in yeast to date, in which partners were identified for approximately half of the proteome. A comparison shows that these two datasets are complementary. In addition, one of the analyses points to a modular organization of the cellular protein network. These data will prove useful in defining principles and trends that arise when combining large-scale datasets of different natures, and in deriving properties of protein machines in cellular systems.