Howarth Mark, Ting Alice Y
Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Nat Protoc. 2008;3(3):534-45. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2008.20.
This protocol describes a simple and efficient way to label specific cell surface proteins with biophysical probes on mammalian cells. Cell surface proteins tagged with a 15-amino acid peptide are biotinylated by Escherichia coli biotin ligase (BirA), whereas endogenous proteins are not modified. The biotin group then allows sensitive and stable binding by streptavidin conjugates. This protocol describes the optimal use of BirA and streptavidin for site-specific labeling and also how to produce BirA and monovalent streptavidin. Streptavidin is tetravalent and the cross-linking of biotinylated targets disrupts many of streptavidin's applications. Monovalent streptavidin has only a single functional biotin-binding site, but retains the femtomolar affinity, low off-rate and high thermostability of wild-type streptavidin. Site-specific biotinylation and streptavidin staining take only a few minutes, while expression of BirA takes 4 d and expression of monovalent streptavidin takes 8 d.
本方案描述了一种在哺乳动物细胞上用生物物理探针标记特定细胞表面蛋白的简单有效方法。用15个氨基酸的肽标记的细胞表面蛋白被大肠杆菌生物素连接酶(BirA)生物素化,而内源性蛋白则未被修饰。生物素基团随后允许链霉亲和素偶联物进行灵敏且稳定的结合。本方案描述了BirA和链霉亲和素用于位点特异性标记的最佳使用方法,以及如何制备BirA和单价链霉亲和素。链霉亲和素是四价的,生物素化靶标的交联会干扰链霉亲和素的许多应用。单价链霉亲和素只有一个功能性生物素结合位点,但保留了野生型链霉亲和素的飞摩尔亲和力、低解离速率和高热稳定性。位点特异性生物素化和链霉亲和素染色只需几分钟,而BirA的表达需要4天,单价链霉亲和素的表达需要8天。