Relatively few bacteria have been comprehensively studied for their protein–protein interactions. However, none of these interactomes are complete in the sense that they captured all interactions. In fact, it has been estimated that none of them covers more than 20% or 30% of all interactions, primarily because most of these studies have only employed a single method, all of which discover only a subset of interactions. Among the published bacterial interactomes (including partial ones) are
The E. coli and Mycoplasma interactomes have been analyzed using large-scale protein complex affinity purification and mass spectrometry (AP/MS), hence it is not easily possible to infer direct interactions. The others have used extensive yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screens. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis interactome has been analyzed using a bacterial two-hybrid screen (B2H).
Note that numerous additional interactomes have been predicted using computational methods (see section above).