A modification should only be entered in the context of an interaction, i.e. the modification occurs during an interaction, not that a previously modified protein is involved in an interaction. For this particular curation system, the 'modification' option can be applied using only the following combination:

In vitro experiments: select 'Biochemical Activity' and any modification. Selecting 'Biochemical Activity' will open up a list of possible modifications in the lower left corner of the curator form. Use this option if an interaction is not actually shown, only inferred from a post-translational modification. However, if an in vitro interaction is also shown, then add a separate entry using 'Reconstituted Complex', but this experimental system is not to be used with a modification. For example, if a paper shows an in vitro kinase assay, you would annotate this as bait = protein A (kinase), hit = protein B (substrate), experimental system= biochemical activity, and modification = phosphorylation. If an actual in vitro interaction is shown as well as the modification, then two interactions should be added for that reference (one 'reconstituted complex' and one 'biochemical activity').

Note that if a paper shows an in vivo experiment where a protein is no longer modified in a mutant background, this is not sufficient to enter an interaction between two proteins. We are not going to add inferences from this type of in vivo data because we cannot be sure whether the deleted gene is truly responsible for the modification.

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