Recent progress and future prospects in protein display technologies as tools for proteomics

Studies of protein-protein interaction networks provide a valuable framework for understanding the functional processes of living systems, because many biological processes are triggered by the interaction or binding of molecules. Display technologies are powerful tools, both for selecting and engineering polypeptides or proteins with novel functions and for analyzing protein interactions. Display technologies can be divided into two types: cell (or viral)-based display, and cell-free display. These display systems permit multiple rounds of affinity selection, and finally the amino acid sequence of the displayed protein can be determined by sequencing the corresponding DNA (or RNA). Display technologies are currently applied to select antibodies, peptides, enzymes, and biologically interacting partners. Because each display technology has various advantages and limitations, both in theory and in practice, one should adapt an appropriate method for a particular purpose. In this review, we summarize recent advances in and prospects for display technologies.