Pioneered by Stanley Fields and Ok-Kyu Song in 1989, the technique was originally designed to detect protein–protein interactions using the Gal4 transcriptional activator of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The Gal4 protein activated transcription of a gene involved in galactose utilization, which formed the basis of selection. Since then, the same principle has been adapted to describe many alternative methods, including some that detect protein–DNA interactions or DNA-DNA interactions, as well as methods that use different host organisms such as Escherichia coli or mammalian cells instead of yeast.