Two-hybrid system

Imagine you have two toys, a red one and a blue one. You want to see if they can play together, but you don't want to watch them play all the time. So, you decide to plant a small camera inside each toy and then leave them alone for a while.

When you come back, you check the cameras to see if the red and blue toys played with each other. If you see that the red and blue toys were playing together, then you know they are compatible and can have fun together.

This is how scientists use a two-hybrid system to see if two proteins can interact with each other. They take two different proteins and attach a special tag to each protein. The tags work like the small cameras in the toys, allowing scientists to see if the proteins interact with each other.

If the two proteins interact with each other, then the scientists can study the interaction and learn more about how the proteins work. It's like watching the red and blue toys play together and seeing how they have fun.

Overall, a two-hybrid system is a method for scientists to study how proteins interact with each other by tagging the proteins and seeing if they interact. It's a bit like watching toys play together, except the "toys" are actually proteins in cells!