About

STRING is a database of known and predicted protein-protein interactions. The interactions include direct (physical) and indirect (functional) associations; they stem from computational prediction, from knowledge transfer between organisms, and from interactions aggregated from other (primary) databases.

Data Sources

Interactions in STRING are derived from five main sources:
 

Genomic Context Predictions

High-throughput Lab Experiments

(Conserved) Co-expression

Automated Textmining

Previous Knowledge in Databases

Coverage

The STRING database currently covers 59'309'604 proteins from 12'535 organisms.

When using STRING, please consult (and cite) the following references:
 
Szklarczyk D, Nastou K, Koutrouli M, Kirsch R, Mehryary F, Hachilif R, Hu D, Peluso ME, Huang Q, Fang T, Doncheva NT, Pyysalo S, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
The STRING database in 2025: protein networks with directionality of regulation.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025 Jan 6;53(D1):D730-737.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D, Kirsch R, Koutrouli M, Nastou K, Mehryary F, Hachilif R, Annika GL, Fang T, Doncheva NT, Pyysalo S, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
The STRING database in 2023: protein–protein association networks and functional enrichment analyses for any sequenced genome of interest.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 Jan 6;51(D1):D638-646.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D^*, Gable AL^*, Nastou KC, Lyon D, Kirsch R, Pyysalo S, Doncheva NT, Legeay M, Fang T, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
The STRING database in 2021: customizable protein–protein networks, and functional characterization of user-uploaded gene/measurement sets.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2021 Jan 8;49(D1):D605-12.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D, Gable AL, Lyon D, Junge A, Wyder S, Huerta-Cepas J, Simonovic M, Doncheva NT, Morris JH, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
STRING v11: protein-protein association networks with increased coverage, supporting functional discovery in genome-wide experimental datasets.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Jan; 47:D607-613.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D, Morris JH, Cook H, Kuhn M, Wyder S, Simonovic M, Santos A, Doncheva NT, Roth A, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
The STRING database in 2017: quality-controlled protein-protein association networks, made broadly accessible.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Jan; 45:D362-68.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D, Franceschini A, Wyder S, Forslund K, Heller D, Huerta-Cepas J, Simonovic M, Roth A, Santos A, Tsafou KP, Kuhn M, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
STRING v10: protein-protein interaction networks, integrated over the tree of life.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2015 Jan; 43:D447-52.PubMed   Cite
 
Franceschini A, Lin J, von Mering C, Jensen LJ^‡.
SVD-phy: improved prediction of protein functional associations through singular value decomposition of phylogenetic profiles.
Bioinformatics. 2015 Nov; btv696.PubMed   Cite
 
Franceschini A^*, Szklarczyk D^*, Frankild S^*, Kuhn M, Simonovic M, Roth A, Lin J, Minguez P, Bork P^‡, von Mering C^‡, Jensen LJ^‡.
STRING v9.1: protein-protein interaction networks, with increased coverage and integration.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Jan; 41:D808-15.PubMed   Cite
 
Szklarczyk D^*, Franceschini A^*, Kuhn M^*, Simonovic M, Roth A, Minguez P, Doerks T, Stark M, Muller J, Bork P^‡, Jensen LJ^‡, von Mering C^‡.
The STRING database in 2011: functional interaction networks of proteins, globally integrated and scored.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan; 39:D561-8.PubMed   Cite
 
Jensen LJ^*, Kuhn M^*, Stark M, Chaffron S, Creevey C, Muller J, Doerks T, Julien P, Roth A, Simonovic M, Bork P^‡, von Mering C^‡.
STRING 8--a global view on proteins and their functional interactions in 630 organisms.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2009 Jan; 37:D412-6.PubMed   Cite
 
von Mering C^*, Jensen LJ^*, Kuhn M, Chaffron S, Doerks T, Krueger B, Snel B, Bork P^‡.
STRING 7--recent developments in the integration and prediction of protein interactions.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2007 Jan; 35:D358-62.PubMed   Cite
 
von Mering C, Jensen LJ, Snel B, Hooper SD, Krupp M, Foglierini M, Jouffre N, Huynen MA, Bork P^‡.
STRING: known and predicted protein-protein associations, integrated and transferred across organisms.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Jan; 33:D433-7.PubMed   Cite
 
von Mering C, Huynen M, Jaeggi D, Schmidt S, Bork P^‡, Snel B.
STRING: a database of predicted functional associations between proteins.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2003 Jan; 31:258-61.PubMed   Cite
 
Snel B^‡, Lehmann G, Bork P, Huynen MA.
STRING: a web-server to retrieve and display the repeatedly occurring neighbourhood of a gene.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2000 Sep 15;28(18):3442-4.PubMed   Cite
 
^*contributed equally
^‡corresponding author

Number of organisms

10'756	Bacteria
1'322	Eukaryotes
457	Archaea
12'535	total organisms

Number of proteins

59'309'604 proteins

Number of interactions (by confidence level)

299'233'302	interactions at highest confidence (score >= 0.900)
953'496'894	interactions at high confidence or better (score >= 0.700)
4'039'326'804	interactions at medium confidence or better (score >= 0.400)
28'464'487'748	total interactions (including low confidence links)

Top organisms (by query volume)

1. Homo sapiens
2. Mus musculus
3. Arabidopsis thaliana
4. Saccharomyces cerevisiae
5. Escherichia coli
6. Caenorhabditis elegans
7. Rattus norvegicus
8. Drosophila melanogaster
9. Bacillus subtilis
10. Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

Tabular overview of all networks in all organism

See the overview pages.