POL Scientific / JBM / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.14440/jbm.2016.81
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Application of linker technique to trap transiently interacting protein complexes for structural studies

Vishnu Priyanka Reddy Chichil1 Veerendra Kuma1 J . Sivaraman1
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1 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore
JBM 2016 , 3(1), 1;
Published: 28 January 2016
© 2016 by the author. Licensee POL Scientific, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Protein-protein interactions are key events controlling several biological processes. We have developed and employed a method to trap transiently interacting protein complexes for structural studies using Gly-rich linkers to fuse interacting partners, one of which is unstructured. Initial steps involve isothermal titration calorimetry to identify the minimum binding region of the unstructured protein in its interaction with its stable binding partner. This is followed by computational analysis to identify the approximate site of the interaction and to design an appropriate linker length. Subsequently, fused constructs are generated and characterized using size exclusion chromatography and dynamic light scattering experiments. The structure of the chimeric protein is then solved by crystallization, and validated both in vitro and in vivo by substituting key interacting residues of the full length, unlinked proteins with alanine. This protocol offers the opportunity to study crucial and currently unattainable transient protein interactions involved in various biological processes

Keywords
Protein-protein interactions
transient interactions
Gly-rich linkers
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Journal of Biological Methods, Electronic ISSN: 2326-9901 Print ISSN: TAB, Published by POL Scientific