Analysis of Protein–Protein Interactions of Human Pioneer Transcription Factors Based on Predictions of the Structures of Their Complexes

Pioneering transcription factors from the Yamanaka cocktail carry out cell reprogramming. These proteins bind to heterochromatin, promote its opening, and attract proteins to alter the epigenetic landscape and activate transcription. However, there is no information in the literature about which chromatin proteins are attracted through direct protein-protein interactions with pioneer transcription factors. In this study, we used neural network algorithms to predict potential protein-protein complexes of three proteins from the Yamanaka cocktail (SOX2, OCT4, and KLF4), and performed a structural and functional analysis of the resulting complexes.