Genotype–phenotype relationships in light of a modular protein interaction landscape

Abstract

Recent progress in genomic sequencing has revealed genotype–phenotype information of enormous complexity and challenges earlier hypotheses on how phenotypes emerge from altered gene structures. The field of proteomics has advanced in parallel and offers promising new concepts for a modern interpretation of complex and nonlinear genotype–phenotype relationships. We are beginning to decipher global proteome organization with increasing throughput and accuracy. These efforts revealed a highly modular organization of the protein landscape. Here we discuss the challenges and implications emerging from a modular protein landscape for a better understanding of complex genotype–phenotype patterns.