Purification of Native Complexes for Structural Study Using a Tandem Affinity Tag Method

Summary

The Tandem Affinity Purification (TAP) method has been used extensively to isolate native complexes from cellular extract, primarily eukaryotic, for proteomics. Here, we present a TAP method protocol optimized for purification of native complexes for structural studies.

Abstract

Affinity purification approaches have been successful in isolating native complexes for proteomic characterization. Structural heterogeneity and a degree of compositional heterogeneity of a complex do not usually impede progress in conducting such studies. In contrast, a complex intended for structural characterization should be purified in a state that is both compositionally and structurally homogeneous as well as at a higher concentration than required for proteomics. Recently, there have been significant advances in the application of electron microscopy for structure determination of large macromolecular complexes. This has heightened interest in approaches to purify native complexes of sufficient quality and quantity for structural determination by electron microscopy. The Tandem Affinity Purification (TAP) method has been optimized to extract and purify an 18-subunit, ~ 0.8 MDa ribonucleoprotein assembly from budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) suitable for negative stain and electron cryo microscopy. Herein is detailed the modifications made to the TAP method, the rationale for making these changes, and the approaches taken to assay for a compositionally and structurally homogeneous complex.

Introduction

Many major cellular processes are carried out by large protein and protein-RNA complexes¹. A significant bottleneck to conducting biophysical and structural studies of such complexes is obtaining them of a suitable quality (i.e., homogeneity) and at an appropriate concentration. Isolating a complex from a native source has many advantages, including retaining relevant post-transcriptional and/or translational modifications of subunits and insuring proper complex assembly. However, large cellular complexes are often present in a cell at a low copy number and the purification must be highly efficient and occur under near physiological conditions to e....

Protocol

Note: The following protocol was devised for purification of a complex from 4 L of cell culture, approximately 40 g wet weight of cells. Once prepared, all buffers should be stored at 4 °C and used within a month of their preparation. Reducing agent and protease inhibitors are only added to buffers just prior to use.

1. Preparation of Whole Cell Extract for Tandem Affinity Purification 

1. Growth of S. cerevisiae Cells
   1. Streak the desired TAP tagged S. cerevisiae strain from storage (-80 °C) onto a yeast peptone dextrose (YPD) plate. Incubate for 3 - 5 days (30 °C), until yeast cells app....

Results

A modified TAP method was used to purify from S. cerevisiae the U1 snRNP, an 18-subunit ribonucleoprotein complex. An initial TAP purification of the complex following the published protocol^2,3 yielded a complex that appeared heterogeneous, migrating as three bands on a silver stained native polyacrylamide gel (Figure 2A). Multiple rounds of optimization of the TAP method, yielded a complex that migrated as primarily a single band on a native gel indic.......

Discussion

The TAP method utilizes two tags that balance a need for tight and selective binding to an affinity resin with a desire to maintain near physiological solution conditions. This balance serves to preserve stable interaction(s) of the tagged protein with interacting factor(s) for post-purification characterization. In addition, individual TAP tagged ORFs are available from a commercial source, so that one can obtain any yeast strain with a tagged protein for any yeast complex. Preserving the integrity of a complex and the .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
S. cerevisiae TAP tagged strain	Open Biosystems	YSC1177	This is the primary yeast strain used to develop the TAP protocol. Its background is S288C: ATCC 201388: MATa, his3Δ1, leu2Δ0, met15Δ0, ura3Δ0, SNU71::TAP::HIS3MX6
Coffee grinder	Mr. Coffee	IDS77	Used for cell lysis
Hemocytometer, Bright Line	Hausser Scientific	3120	Used to assess cell lysis
JA 9.100 centrifuge rotor	Beckman Coulter, Inc.		Used to harvest the yeast cells
JA 20 fixed-angle centrifuge rotor	Beckman Coulter, Inc.		Used to clear the cell extract of non-soluble cellular material
Ti 60 fixed-angle centrifuge rotor	Beckman Coulter, Inc.		Used to further clear the soluble cell extract
Thermomixer	Eppendorf	R5355	Temperature controlled shaker
Novex gel system	Thermo Fisher Scientific
IgG resin	GE Healthcare	17-0969-01	Sepharose 6 fast flow
Calmodulin resin	Agilent Technologies, Inc.	214303	Affinity resin
Protease inhibitor cocktail, mini tablets	Sigma Aldrich	589297	Mini cOmplete ultra EDTA-free tablets
Protease inhibitor cocktail, large tablets	Sigma Aldrich	5892953	cOmplete ultra EDTA-free tablets
Phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride (PMSF)			Dissolved in isopropanol
2 ml Bio-spin column	Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.	7326008	Used to pack and wash the Calmodulin resin
10 ml poly-prep column	Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.	7311550	Used to pack and wash the IgG resin
Precast native PAGE Bis-Tris gels	Life Technologies	BN1002	Novex NativePAGE Bis-Tris 4 - 16% precast polyacrylamide gels
NativeMark protein standard	Thermo Fisher Scientific	LC0725	Unstained protein standard used for native PAGE. Load 7.5 μl for a silver stained gel and 5 μl for a SYPRO Ruby stained gel
Precast SDS PAGE Bis-Tris gels	Life Technologies	NP0321	Novex Nu-PAGE Bis-Tris 4 - 12% precast polyacrylamide gels
PageRuler protein standard	Thermo Fisher Scientific	26614	Unstained protein standard used for Western blotting
SDS running buffer	Life Technologies	NP0001	1x NuPAGE MOPS SDS Buffer
TAP antibody	Thermo Fisher Scientific	CAB1001	Primary antibody against CBP tag
Secondary antibody	Thermo Fisher Scientific	31341	Goat anti-rabbit alkaline phosphatase conjugated
BCIP/NBT	Thermo Fisher Scientific	34042	5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-phosphate/nitro blue tetrazolium
Dialaysis units	Thermo Fisher Scientific	88401	Slide-A-Lyzer mini dialysis units
Centrifugal filter units, 100kDa MWCO	EMD Millipore	UFC5100008	Amicon Ultra-0.5 Centrifugal Filter Unit with Ultracel-100 membrane
Detergent absorbing beads	Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.	1523920	Bio-bead SM-2 absorbants
SYBR Green II	Thermo Fisher Scientific	S-7564	Flourescent dye for nucleic acid staining, when detecting with SYPRO Ruby present, use excitation wavelength of 488 nm and emission wavelength of 532 nm
SYPRO Ruby	Molecular Probes	S-12000	Flourescent dye for protein staining, when detecting with SYBR Green II present, use excitation wavelength of 457 nm and emission wavelength of 670 nm
Copper grids	Electron Microscopy Sciences	G400-CP