This year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of a novel approach to measuring protein–protein interactions (PPIs) in living cells, called the ubiquitin-based split-protein sensor (USPS), the inspiration for the protein-fragment complementation assays (PCAs) that followed. Here I provide a brief history of PCAs and discuss advances in their applications and possible future developments.
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Acknowledgements
S.W.M. acknowledges the many contributors to development and applications of PCAs that, due to space constraints, could be not cited. Some further reading is available in the Supplementary Information and our website (https://michnicklab.ca/the-pca-page/).
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Michnick, S.W. Three decades of protein-fragment complementation. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 26, 3–4 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00813-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00813-0
