Dynamic Remodeling of Escherichia coli Interactome in Response to
Environmental Perturbations
Abstract
Proteins play an essential role in the vital biological processes
governing cellular functions. Most proteins function as members of
macromolecular machines, with the network of interacting proteins
revealing the molecular mechanisms driving the formation of these
complexes. Profiling the physiology-driven remodeling of these
interactions within different contexts constitutes a crucial component
to achieving a comprehensive systems-level understanding of interactome
dynamics. Here, we apply co-fractionation mass spectrometry and
computational modeling to quantify and profile the interactions of
~2,000 proteins in the bacterium Escherichia coli
cultured under ten distinct culture conditions. The resulting
quantitative co-elution patterns revealed large-scale
condition-dependent interaction remodeling among protein complexes
involved in diverse biochemical pathways in response to the unique
environmental challenges. Network-level analysis highlighted
interactome-wide biophysical properties and structural patterns
governing interaction remodeling. Our results provide evidence of the
local and global plasticity of the E. coli interactome along with a
rigorous generalizable framework to define protein interaction
specificity. We provide an accompanying interactive web application to
facilitate exploration of these rewired networks.