Probing High-density Functional Protein Microarrays to Detect Protein-protein Interactions

Summary

Using protein microarrays containing nearly the entire S. cerevisiae proteome is probed for rapid unbiased interrogation of thousands of protein-protein interactions in parallel. This method can be utilized for protein-small molecule, posttranslational modification, and other assays in high-throughput.

Abstract

High-density functional protein microarrays containing ~4,200 recombinant yeast proteins are examined for kinase protein-protein interactions using an affinity purified yeast kinase fusion protein containing a V5-epitope tag for read-out. Purified kinase is obtained through culture of a yeast strain optimized for high copy protein production harboring a plasmid containing a Kinase-V5 fusion construct under a GAL inducible promoter. The yeast is grown in restrictive media with a neutral carbon source for 6 hr followed by induction with 2% galactose. Next, the culture is harvested and kinase is purified using standard affinity chromatographic techniques to obtain a highly purified protein kinase for use in the assay. The purified kinase is diluted with kinase buffer to an appropriate range for the assay and the protein microarrays are blocked prior to hybridization with the protein microarray. After the hybridization, the arrays are probed with monoclonal V5 antibody to identify proteins bound by the kinase-V5 protein. Finally, the arrays are scanned using a standard microarray scanner, and data is extracted for downstream informatics analysis^1,2 to determine a high confidence set of protein interactions for downstream validation in vivo.

Introduction

The need to perform global analyses of protein biochemistry and binding activity in vivo has resulted in the development of new methods for profiling protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and the post-translational modifications of whole proteomes^1,3-8. Protein microarrays are manufactured as functional protein microarrays using full-length functional proteins^4-6,8,9, or analytical protein microarrays containing antibodies^10,11. They are engineered to contain a high-density of proteins arrayed onto microscope slides with a variety of surface chemistries to facilitate a variety of experimental conditions required for conducting w....

Protocol

1. Probe Preparation

1. Culture and purify the V5-fusion kinase probes used to examine interactions with other proteins as follows:
   1. Use freshly streaked yeast strain Y258 (MATa pep4-3, his4-580, ura3-53, leu2-3,112) containing V5-fusion protein (expressed from GATEWAY vector pYES-DEST52). Use the isolated protein as probe on the microarrays. Plate the yeast on synthetic complete-uracil (Sc-Ura)/2% Dextrose/Agar and grow at 30 °C for 3 days from frozen culture (-80 °C glycerol stock).
   2. Inoculate starter cultures (5–20 ml) from a single colony and grow overnight in Sc-Ura/2% Dextrose on shaking platform (220-250 r....

Results

The protein-protein interaction activity was observed using a standard chip reader to evaluate the Tda1-V5 protein kinase fusion construct as a bait protein against a yeast functional protein microarray containing approximately 4,200 unique S. cerevisiae GST-fusion proteins. Further interrogation with the Genepix software revealed a multitude of binding events of varying intensities. The affinity was gauged from the graded intensity of the signal derived from a monoclonal V5-Fluorophore conjugated antibody bound.......

Discussion

The protocol presented was originally performed using 85 unique yeast protein kinase-V5 fusion proteins to compare binding activity across distinct and related families of yeast protein kinases resulting in the identification of new kinase interaction networks in vivo¹. As an emerging proteomic profiling technology, the development of High Throughput (HTP) screening of proteomes using protein microarrays relied on peptide libraries, and eukaryotic and prokaryotic model organisms^8,17; later,.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Petri Dishes	VWR	NC-10747	or comparable
Bacto yeast extract	Difco	0217-17
Bacto peptone	Difco	0118-17
Bacto agar	Difco	0140-01
Dextrose	Sigma	D9434
Raffinose	Sigma	R0514
Galactose	Sigma	G0750
Sc-Ura drop out media	MP Bio	114410622
Small Culture tubes	VWR/Fisher
Large Erlenmeyer Flask	VWR/Fisher
Centrifuge JA-10 rotor
Centrifuge tubes (500 ml)
Falcon tube (50 ml)	VWR/Fisher	21008-951
PBS Tablets	Sigma	P4417
FastPrep Tubes (2 ml screw cap tube)
FastPrep Machine	MP Biomedicals	116004500
Zircon Beads	BioSpec	11079105
Triton X100	Sigma	P4417
DTT	Sigma	D9779
MgCl2	Sigma	M8266
NaCl	Sigma	S3014
Imidazole (pH = 7.4)	Sigma	I5513
PMSF	Sigma	93482
Complete Inhibitor Cocktail (EDTA Free)	Roche	11873580001
Phosphatase inhibitor cocktail 1	sigma	P2850
BSA	Sigma	A2153
Tween-20	Sigma	P1379
ATP	Sigma	A1852
Shaking Incubator (30 °C)
Nickel Affinity Resin	Life Technologies	R901-01
G25 column	GE life sciences	27-5325-01
Nutator	VWR/Fisher
SDS-PAGE Gel (NuPage)	Life Technologies
Coomassie Blue Stain	Life Technologies
Monoclonal V5 Antibody	Life Technologies	R960-25
Alexa647 Tagged monoclonal V5 Antibody	Life Technologies	451098
Protein Microarrays Kit	Life Technologies	PAH0525013
Genepix Scanner	Molecular Devices
Lifter Slips	Thomas Scientific		http://www.thomassci.com/Supplies/Microscope-Cover-Glass/_/LIFTER-SLIPS/
Lysis Buffer: 0.1% Triton X-100, 0.5 mM DTT, 2 mM MgCl2, 500 mM NaCl, 50 mM imidazole (pH 7.4), Complete protease inhibitor cocktail – EDTA-free, Phosphatase inhibitor Cocktail 1, 1 mM PMSF  (add just prior to use)			Add the reagents to 1x PBS (0.01 M phosphate buffer, 0.0027 M potassium chloride, 0.137 M sodium chloride; pH 7.4) to obtain the desired volume of lysis solution
Blocking Buffer: 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA), 0.1% Tween-20			Add the reagents to 1x PBS to obtain the desired volume of blocking buffer
Probe Buffer: 2 mM MgCl2, 0.5 mM DTT, 0.05% Triton X-100, 50 mM NaCl, 500 μM ATP (for kinases), 1% BSA			Add the reagent to 1x PBS to obtain desired volume of probe buffer
Wash Buffer: 0.1% Triton X-100, 500 mM NaCl, 0.5 mM DTT, 50 mM imidazole (pH 7.4),2 mM MgCl2			Add the reagent to 1x PBS to obtain desired volume of probe buffer
Elution Buffer: 0.1% Triton X-100, 0.5 mM DTT, 2 mM MgCl2, 500 mM NaCl, 50 – 500 mM imidazole (pH 7.4), Complete protease inhibitor cocktail – EDTA-free, Phosphatase inhibitor Cocktail 1, 1 mM PMSF (add just prior to use)			Before you begin, it is important to note the concentration gradient of imidazole (50 – 500 mM) and to create separate tubes for each concentration (it is advisable to create the interval using 50 mM increments). Add the reagent to 1x PBS to obtain desired volume of probe buffer
3x YEP +6% galactose: Dissolve 30 g of yeast extract and  60 g of peptone in 700 ml of H2O, and autoclave. Add 300 ml of filter sterilized 20% galactose (wt/vol)			Galactose should not be autoclaved