Interaction directly demonstrated at the atomic level by X-ray crystallography. Also used for NMR or Electron Microscopy (EM) structures. If there is no obvious bait-hit directionality to the interaction involving 3 or more proteins, then the co-crystallized proteins should be listed as a complex.

Interaction inferred from two proteins that co-localize in the cell by indirect immunofluorescence only when in addition, if one gene is deleted, the other protein becomes mis-localized. Also includes co-dependent association of proteins with promoter DNA in chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments.

An interaction is inferred between proteins in vitro. This can include proteins in recombinant form or proteins isolated directly from cells with recombinant or purified bait. For example, GST pull-down assays where a GST-tagged protein is first isolated and then used to fish interactors from cell lysates are considered reconstituted complexes (e.g. PUBMED: 14657240, Fig. 4A or PUBMED: 14761940, Fig. 5). This can also include gel-shifts, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and bio-layer interferometry (BLI) experiments. The bait-hit directionality may not be clear for 2 interacting proteins. In these cases the directionality is up to the discretion of the curator.