An interaction is inferred when a bait protein is affinity captured from cell extracts by either polyclonal antibody or epitope tag and the associated interaction partner identified by Western blot with a specific polyclonal antibody or second epitope tag. This category is also used if an interacting protein is visualized directly by dye stain or radioactivity. Note that this differs from any co-purification experiment involving affinity capture in that the co-purification experiment involves at least one extra purification step to get rid of potential contaminating proteins.

A genetic interaction is inferred when mutations or deletions in separate genes, each of which alone causes a minimal phenotype, result in lethality when combined in the same cell under a given condition.