Fluorescence Anisotropy as a Tool to Study Protein-protein Interactions

Summary

Protein interactions are at the heart of a cell's function. Calorimetric and spectroscopic techniques are commonly used to characterize them. Here we describe fluorescence anisotropy as a tool to study the interaction between the protein mutated in the Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SBDS) and the Elongation factor-like 1 GTPase (EFL1).

Abstract

Protein-protein interactions play an essential role in the function of a living organism. Once an interaction has been identified and validated it is necessary to characterize it at the structural and mechanistic level. Several biochemical and biophysical methods exist for such purpose. Among them, fluorescence anisotropy is a powerful technique particularly used when the fluorescence intensity of a fluorophore-labeled protein remains constant upon protein-protein interaction. In this technique, a fluorophore-labeled protein is excited with vertically polarized light of an appropriate wavelength that selectively excites a subset of the fluorophores according to their relative orientation with the incoming beam. The resulting emission also has a directionality whose relationship in the vertical and horizontal planes defines anisotropy (r) as follows: r=(I_VV-I_VH)/(I_VV+2I_VH), where I_VV and I_VH are the fluorescence intensities of the vertical and horizontal components, respectively. Fluorescence anisotropy is sensitive to the rotational diffusion of a fluorophore, namely the apparent molecular size of a fluorophore attached to a protein, which is altered upon protein-protein interaction. In the present text, the use of fluorescence anisotropy as a tool to study protein-protein interactions was exemplified to address the binding between the protein mutated in the Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SBDS) and the Elongation factor like-1 GTPase (EFL1). Conventionally, labeling of a protein with a fluorophore is carried out on the thiol groups (cysteine) or in the amino groups (the N-terminal amine or lysine) of the protein. However, SBDS possesses several cysteines and lysines that did not allow site directed labeling of it. As an alternative technique, the dye 4',5'-bis(1,3,2 dithioarsolan-2-yl) fluorescein was used to specifically label a tetracysteine motif, Cys-Cys-Pro-Gly-Cys-Cys, genetically engineered in the C-terminus of the recombinant SBDS protein. Fitting of the experimental data provided quantitative and mechanistic information on the binding mode between these proteins.

Introduction

Cells contain a multitude of biomacromolecules that constantly interact with each other. This association gives rise to complexes that participate in the cellular pathways responsible for their functioning in signal transduction, regulation of gene expression and cell migration amongst others. All protein-protein interactions that occur in a cell comprise a network known as the interactome. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae more than 70% of its proteins have been shown to have interacting partners ¹. Understanding the interactome of a cell and their functions provide relevant information on the complexity and diversity of living organisms. Several method....

Protocol

1. SBDS-FlAsH Tag Protein Expression and Purification

NOTE: For the anisotropy experiments, a FlAsH-tag corresponding to the sequence Cys-Cys-Pro-Gly-Cys-Cys was added to the C-terminus of the human SBDS coding sequence by PCR. This construct was subcloned into the expression vector pRSET-A and transformed into Escherichia coli C41 cells to express a protein encoding a N-terminal hexahistidine tag (His-tag), the human SBDS coding sequence and a C-terminus FlAsH tag ¹⁰.

1. SBDS-FlAsH protein expression
   1. Transform competent E. coli C41 cells with the plasmid pRSET-HisSBDS-FlAsH using a standard hea....

Results

To perform any anisotropy experiment it is important to rule out large changes in the fluorescence intensity of the fluorophore since the observed anisotropy of a mixture of species is represented by Equation 5:

Discussion

Most biochemical experiments with proteins require not only pure protein but also large amounts of them, irrespective of the technique used. For this reason, the proteins used for this type of experiments are obtained by heterologous expression, as it was the case presented here. Florescence spectroscopy requires the presence of a fluorophore in the studied molecule. Aromatic residues constitute the intrinsic fluorophores of a protein, however, using their signal to study protein-protein interactions complicates the anal.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.5 mm Glass beads	Biospec Products	11079105
Tris Base	Formedium	TRIS01	Ultra pure
Glycerol	Sigma-Aldrich	G5516
dye 4’,5’-bis(1,3,2 dithioarsolan-2-yl) fluorescein	ThermoFischer Scientific	LC6090	This kit contains the dye to label a FlAsH tag
Ampiciline	IBI Shelton Scientific, Inc	IB02040
D(+)-Glucose Anhydrous	Formedium	GLU03
D(+)-Galactose	Formedium	GAL03
L-Leucine	Formedium	DOC0157
L-Tryptofan	Formedium	DOC0189
Bezamidine hydrochloride	Sigma-Aldrich	B6506-5G
PMSF	Gold Biotechnology, Inc	P-470-25	Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride
NaCl	Formedium	NAC02	Sodium Chloride
Glycerol	Tecsiquim, S.A. de C.V.	GT1980-6
MgCl2	Merck Millipore Corporation	1725711000	Magnesium Chloride
Imidazole	Sigma-Aldrich	I2399-500G
2-Mercaptoethanol	Sigma-Aldrich	M6250-100ML
K2HPO4	Sigma-Aldrich	P3786-500G	Potassium phosphate dibasic
NaH2PO4	Sigma-Aldrich	S3139-500G	Sodium phosphate monobasic
Yeast nitrogen base without amino acids	Formedium	CYN0410
Yeast extract	Formedium	YEM03	Micro Granulated
L-Tyroisne	Formedium	DOC0193
Adenine sulphate	Formedium	DOC0230
Casamino acids	Formedium	CAS03
Tryptone	IBI Shelton Scientific, Inc	IB49182
IPTG	Formedium	IPTG025
Filtration units	Merck Millipore Corporation	UFC901096	Amicon Ultra-15, membrana PLGC Ultracel-PL, 10 kDa
Membrane Filter	Merck Millipore Corporation	GSWP04700	Membrane Filter, mixed cellulose esters, Hydrophilic, 0.22 µm, 47 mm, white, plain
Ni2+ affinity column	QIAGEN	30760	Cartridge pre-filled with 5 ml Ni-NTA Superflow
Strong Sulfopropyl cation exchanger column	GE Healthcare Life Science	17-5157-01	HiTrap SP Sepharose FF 5 ml
Size Exclusion column	GE Healthcare Life Science	28989335	HiLoad 16/600 Superdex 200 PG
Fluorescence cell	Hellma Analytics	111-057-40
Spectrophotometer	Agilent Technologies	G6860AA	Cary 60 UV-Vis
Shaker	ThermoFischer Scientific	SHKA4000-7	MaxQ 4000 Benchtop temperature range Ambient-15° to 60°C
Centrifuge	ThermoFischer Scientific	75004271	Heraeus Megafuge 16R
FPLC	Pharmacia Biotech	Discontinued	FPLC system conductivity UV-MM II monitor P500 pump fraction
Spectrofluorometer	Olis	No applicable	Olis DM 45 with Polarization Toolbox