Title:Detecting Protein-Protein Interaction Based on Protein Fragment Complementation Assay
Volume: 21
Issue: 6
Author(s): Tianwen Wang, Ningning Yang, Chen Liang, Hongjv Xu, Yafei An, Sha Xiao, Mengyuan Zheng, Lu Liu, Gaozhan Wang and Lei Nie*
Affiliation:
- College of Life Sciences, and Institute for Conservation and Utilization of Agro-bioresources in Dabie Mountains, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000,China
Keywords:
Protein-protein interaction, protein complementation assay, interaction reporting system, enzyme, fluorescent protein,
ubiquitin.
Abstract: Proteins are the most critical executive molecules by responding to the instructions stored in
the genetic materials in any form of life. More frequently, proteins do their jobs by acting as a roleplayer
that interacts with other protein(s), which is more evident when the function of a protein is examined
in the real context of a cell. Identifying the interactions between (or amongst) proteins is very
crucial for the biochemistry investigation of an individual protein and for the attempts aiming to draw a
holo-picture for the interacting members at the scale of proteomics (or protein-protein interactions
mapping). Here, we introduced the currently available reporting systems that can be used to probe the
interaction between candidate protein pairs based on the fragment complementation of some particular
proteins. Emphasis was put on the principles and details of experimental design. These systems are
dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), β-lactamase, tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease, luciferase, β-
galactosidase, GAL4, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), green fluorescent
protein (GFP), and ubiquitin.