1. Combining protein complementation assays with resonance energy transfer to detect multipartner protein complexes in living cells.
- Author
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Rebois RV, Robitaille M, Pétrin D, Zylbergold P, Trieu P, and Hébert TE
- Subjects
- Adenylyl Cyclases metabolism, Amino Acid Sequence, Bacterial Proteins analysis, Bacterial Proteins genetics, Bacterial Proteins metabolism, Biological Assay methods, Cell Line, Transformed, Cell Line, Tumor, Fluorescent Dyes analysis, Fluorescent Dyes metabolism, Green Fluorescent Proteins analysis, Green Fluorescent Proteins genetics, Green Fluorescent Proteins metabolism, Humans, Luciferases analysis, Luciferases genetics, Luciferases metabolism, Luminescent Proteins analysis, Luminescent Proteins genetics, Luminescent Proteins metabolism, Molecular Sequence Data, Multiprotein Complexes metabolism, Plasmids, Protein Interaction Mapping methods, Protein Multimerization, Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled metabolism, Recombinant Fusion Proteins metabolism, Recombinant Fusion Proteins radiation effects, Research Design, Spectrometry, Fluorescence methods, Transfection, Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer, Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton methods, Multiprotein Complexes analysis, Recombinant Fusion Proteins analysis
- Abstract
A variety of fluorescent proteins with different spectral properties have been created by mutating green fluorescent protein. When these proteins are split in two, neither fragment is fluorescent per se, nor can a fluorescent protein be reconstituted by co-expressing the complementary N- and C-terminal fragments. However, when these fragments are genetically fused to proteins that associate with each other in cellulo, the N- and C-terminal fragments of the fluorescent protein are brought together and can reconstitute a fluorescent protein. A similar protein complementation assay (PCA) can be performed with two complementary fragments of various luciferase isoforms. This makes these assays useful tools for detecting the association of two proteins in living cells. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) or fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) occurs when energy from, respectively, a luminescent or fluorescent donor protein is non-radiatively transferred to a fluorescent acceptor protein. This transfer of energy can only occur if the proteins are within 100A of each other. Thus, BRET and FRET are also useful tools for detecting the association of two proteins in living cells. By combining different protein fragment complementation assays (PCA) with BRET or FRET it is possible to demonstrate that three or more proteins are simultaneous parts of the same protein complex in living cells. As an example of the utility of this approach, we show that as many as four different proteins are simultaneously associated as part of a G protein-coupled receptor signalling complex.
- Published
- 2008
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