A dual-light reporter system to determine the efficiency of protein-protein interactions in mammalian cells

Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Apr 11;33(7):e66. doi: 10.1093/nar/gni066.

Abstract

Methods for determining protein-protein interactions in mammalian cells typically rely on single reporter functions and are susceptible to variations between samples particularly in regard to levels of transcription, processing and translation. A method has been developed for determining protein-protein interactions in mammalian cells, which bypasses these variables confounding single reporter assays. The approach utilizes two units of gene expression linked to reporter functions that are interposed by a deactivation-activation unit in such a way that the downstream expression unit is switched off. Hence upstream expression occurs regardless of protein-protein interaction, leading to the production of the upstream reporter. In the event of protein-protein interactions, the downstream expression unit is switched on leading to dual reporter read outs. Thus, the ratio of the two reporter activities provides a measure to determine the efficiency of protein-protein interactions. To access the system we screened a mutant of BMPR2 where the interaction between BMPR-II and LIMK is abrogated. BMPR-II is a type II receptor of the TGFbeta superfamily and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of familial pulmonary arterial hypertension. This system has potential for high-throughput screening of libraries (peptide, chemical, cDNA, etc.) to isolate agents that are capable of interfering with highly selective protein-protein interaction.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptors, Type II
  • Cell Line
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Genes, Reporter*
  • Humans
  • Luciferases / analysis
  • Luciferases / genetics
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods*
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / analysis
  • beta-Galactosidase / analysis
  • beta-Galactosidase / genetics

Substances

  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Luciferases
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
  • BMPR2 protein, human
  • Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptors, Type II
  • beta-Galactosidase