A Protocol for Phage Display and Affinity Selection Using Recombinant Protein Baits

Summary

Phage display is a powerful technique to capture proteins or protein moieties that interact with an immobilized molecule of interest. Once a decision of the type of phage cDNA library to create and screen has been made, the protocol described here permits efficient affinity selection leading to identification of interactors.

Abstract

Using recombinant phage as a scaffold to present various protein portions encoded by a directionally cloned cDNA library to immobilized bait molecules is an efficient means to discover interactions. The technique has largely been used to discover protein-protein interactions but the bait molecule to be challenged need not be restricted to proteins. The protocol presented here has been optimized to allow a modest number of baits to be screened in replicates to maximize the identification of independent clones presenting the same protein. This permits greater confidence that interacting proteins identified are legitimate interactors of the bait molecule. Monitoring the phage titer after each affinity selection round provides information on how the affinity selection is progressing as well as on the efficacy of negative controls. One means of titering the phage, and how and what to prepare in advance to allow this process to progress as efficiently as possible, is presented. Attributes of amplicons retrieved following isolation of independent plaque are highlighted that can be used to ascertain how well the affinity selection has progressed. Trouble shooting techniques to minimize false positives or to bypass persistently recovered phage are explained. Means of reducing viral contamination flare up are discussed.

Introduction

Why use phage display and affinity selection instead of the myriad other techniques available for discovering and investigating protein interactions with other molecules? Phage display can claim some unique advantages over other methods of detecting protein-ligand interactions^1-3 including the following:

Very wide repertoire of bait molecules

The foremost reason is in the diversity of molecules capable of acting as bait in affinity selection ⁴. Phage display is a very powerful means of isolating protein fragments that interact with other proteins, nucleotides, carbohydrates, etc.^5....

Protocol

A graphic depiction of the procedure described below (Figure 1) highlights the two primary components for affinity selection using a phage display library: A) a phage display cDNA library likely to encode proteins with affinity for the bait and; B) a purified recombinant bait protein. Production of bait (recombinant protein) has been extensively examined and literature outlining best practices for securing soluble, active recombinant protein from E. coli^12-13, eukaryotic yeast¹⁴, insect^15-16, plant^17-18, or mammalian^19-20 cells abound.

In the following protocol....

Results

Being able to impair the capacity of the bait to interact with phage-displayed proteins (metabolically poisoning the bait) provides a potent negative control for this technique. It is also advisable to determine if the bait, when bound to the microtiter plate well, retains its function. Both of these checks will increase the confidence that interacting, phage-displayed proteins recovered by the nonpoisoned bait are legitimate.

Sampling three triplicates from each well adds considerably to the .......

Discussion

By running the experiment in three replicated wells, independently acquired phage of the same protein binding to the bait can be distinguished even if they are the same clone (i.e. no difference in the nucleotide sequence of the CDS region that has been acquired but these have been retrieved from independent wells). Otherwise, the only way to distinguish among phage encoding the same protein binding to the bait is if they are independently reverse transcribed regions that differ in some part of the nucleotide se.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Tryptone	Becton Dickinson Co.	211705
Yeast Extract	Becton Dickinson	212750
Agar	Becton Dickinson	214010
Sodium Chloride	Fisher Scientific	BP358-10
Agarose	Research Products International	A20090
Blocking Reagent	EMD Chemicals Inc.	69064
Tween 20	Fisher Scientific	BP337-100
Sodium Hydroxide	Fisher Scientific	BP359-212
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate	Fisher Scientific	BP166-500
Tris Base	Fisher Scientific	BP152-5
Chloroform	Fisher Scientific	BP1145-1
Escherichia coli BLT5403	EMD Chemicals Inc.	BLT5403	Genotype: F- ompT hsdSB (rB - mB -) gal dcm pAR5403 (AmpR)
Ampicillin, Sodium Salt	Research Products International	A40040
Ethidium bromide	Fisher Scientific	BP102-1
Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)	Sigma-Aldrich Corp.	A-9647
Penta-HIS primary antibody	Qiagen Inc.	34660
Goat anti-mouse alkaline phosphatise conjugate	Sigma-Aldrich Corp.	A-5153
para-Nitrophenylphosphate	Sigma-Aldrich Corp.	N-7653
T7-UP primer	EMD Chemicals Inc.		5'-GGAGCTGTCGTATTCCAGTC-3'
T7-DOWN primer	EMD Chemicals Inc.		5'-AACCCCTCAAGACCCGTTTA-3'
Qiaquick PCR Purification kit	Qiagen Inc.	28104
Qiaquick Gel Extraction kit	Qiagen Inc.	28706
Big Dye Terminator v3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit	Invitrogen Life Technologies	4336917
Heating Block	Pierce Chemical Co. (Thermo Fisher Scientific Co.)	18780
96-well Cell Culture Plates	Corning	Costar 3590
Isotemp Incubator Oven	Fisher Scientific	516D
Pasteur Pipettes, 5 ¾ in	Fisher Scientific	13-678-20A
ChromaView Transilluminator	UVP Inc.	TS-15
UV Shield	Oberon	071AF
Gloves, Nitrile	Fisher Scientific	19-170-010C
Sterile 1.5 ml tubes	USA Scientific Inc	1615-5500
10 ml Borosilicate Pipettes	Fisher Scientific	13-678-25E
Borosilicate culture tubes	Fisher Scientific	14-961-27
Uniskan I, ELISA plate reader	Labsystem and Flow Laboratories, Helsinki, Finland	Type 362