Luciferase Complementation Imaging Assay in Nicotiana benthamiana Leaves for Transiently Determining Protein-protein Interaction Dynamics

Summary

This manuscript describes an easy and rapid experimental procedure for determining protein-protein interactions based on the measurement of luciferase activity.

Abstract

Protein-protein interactions are fundamental mechanisms for relaying signal transduction in most cellular processes; therefore, identification of novel protein-protein interaction pairs and monitoring protein interaction dynamics are of particular interest for revealing how plants respond to environmental factors and/or developmental signals. A plethora of approaches have been developed to examine protein-protein interactions, either in vitro or in vivo. Among them, the recently established luciferase complementation imaging (LCI) assay is the simplest and fastest method for demonstrating in vivo protein-protein interactions. In this assay, protein A or protein B is fused with the amino-terminal or carboxyl-terminal half of luciferase, respectively. When protein A interacts with protein B, the two halves of luciferase will be reconstituted to form a functional and active luciferase enzyme. Luciferase activity can be recorded with a luminometer or CCD-camera. Compared with other approaches, the LCI assay shows protein-protein interactions both qualitatively and quantitatively. Agrobacterium infiltration in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves is a widely used system for transient protein expression. With the combination of LCI and transient expression, these approaches show that the physical interaction between COP1 and SPA1 was gradually reduced after jasmonate treatment.

Introduction

In order to coordinate growth with its environment, plants have evolved elegant signaling pathways to sense, transduce, and respond to signaling cues. Like the runners in a relay race, proteins are necessary players in plant signal transduction. It has been widely recognized that protein-protein interaction (PPI) plays a major role for cellular communication. Protein phosphorylation, acetylation, and degradation are all dependent on physical interaction between a target protein and its modifying enzymes. For example, Jasmonate ZIM-domain protein (JAZ) family proteins interact with transcription factor MYC2 and suppress its transcriptional activity¹

Protocol

1. Preparation of Plants (8 weeks)

1. Put 50 Nicotiana benthamiana seeds in one 1.5 mL microcentrifuge tube containing 1 mL of 5% NaClO and 0.1% Triton X-100 (V/V) solution and leave for 5 min to sterilize the seeds.
2. Rinse the seeds with sterile water 5 times and suspend seeds in 200 µL of sterile water.
3. Carefully place individual seeds onto the surface of MS-agar medium (1 L: 1x Murashige & Skoog salts, 10 g sucrose, pH 5.8 (KOH), 1% agar) with fine tips and store medium plates in 4 °C for 3 days to synchronize germination.
   NOTE: To avoid microbe contamination, perform this step on a clean bench. It is not ne....

Results

Three major steps can be singled out in this luciferase complementation protocol for studying protein-protein interactions in vivo, including plant growth, tobacco infiltration, and the luciferase assay. The most crucial step in this protocol is infiltrating liquid A. tumefaciens into N. benthamiana leaves (Figure 1).

Here is an example of the usefulness of this technique .......

Discussion

The protocol described here is simple and reproducible for studying in vivo protein-protein interactions, and particularly suitable for detecting protein interaction dynamics under exogenous treatment. The key step in this assay is N. benthamiana infiltration. To ensure infiltration success, plants must be very healthy. Another critical factor is when to check luciferase activity after infiltration. There is no correct answer for this question. Researchers are encouraged to monitor luciferase activity a.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Transformation solution
10 mM Morpholineethanesulfonic acid	VETEC	V900336
27.8 mM Glucose	VETEC	V900392
10 mM MgCl2×6H2O	VETEC	V900020
150 μM Acetosyringone	ALDRICH	D134406
pH 5.7
Luciferin working buffer
5 mM Luciferin potassium salt	GOLD BIOTECHNOLOGY	LUCK-100
0.025% Triton X-100	VETEC	V900502
H2O to 10 ml