Ezsias Bence, Goessweiner-Mohr Nikolaus, Siligan Christine, Horner Andreas, Vargas Carolyn, Keller Sandro, Pohl Peter
Institute of Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Gruberstraße 40, Linz 4020, Austria.
Biophysics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences (IMB), NAWI Graz, University of Graz, Humboldtstr. 50/III, 8010 Graz, Austria.
Anal Chem. 2025 Aug 12;97(31):16796-16804. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c01702. Epub 2025 Aug 1.
Native gel electrophoresis techniques, such as blue or clear native gel electrophoresis (BNE or CNE), are widely used to separate and characterize proteins. However, in high-resolution CNE, mild anionic or neutral detergents are often used at concentrations that are too low to prevent membrane-protein aggregation. Additionally, the identification of proteins is hampered by the lack of suitable molecular-weight markers such as those used in SDS-PAGE. Here, we introduce a novel approach that combines charged polymer-encapsulated nanodiscs and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to address both challenges. Membrane proteins are first extracted using Glyco-DIBMA, a negatively charged amphiphilic copolymer. This enables the spontaneous formation of nanodiscs harboring the fluorescently labeled target protein within a native-like lipid-bilayer environment, which is confirmed by FCS. The nanodiscs are then subjected to detergent-free CNE. As the number of protomers increases, the nanodiscs grow larger, resulting in increased migration distances in CNE due to higher charge densities. Crucially, the nanodiscs remain intact throughout the CNE, as demonstrated by FCS analysis of resolubilized bands excised from the gels. Moreover, the membrane proteins used in this study, a potassium channel (KvAP), a sodium channel (NavMs), a water channel (GlpF), and a urea channel (UreI), show only negligible aggregation, as evidenced by the fluorescent brightnesses and diffusion times of individual nanodiscs. In addition, the oligomeric states of membrane proteins can be deduced from the brightness per nanodisc. Since purified membrane proteins remain within a native-like lipid-bilayer environment and avoid detergent exposure, they are immediately suitable for downstream structural and functional studies.
天然凝胶电泳技术,如蓝色或清晰天然凝胶电泳(BNE或CNE),被广泛用于分离和表征蛋白质。然而,在高分辨率CNE中,通常使用的温和阴离子或中性去污剂浓度过低,无法防止膜蛋白聚集。此外,缺乏适用于SDS-PAGE的合适分子量标记物阻碍了蛋白质的鉴定。在此,我们引入了一种新方法,该方法结合了带电聚合物包裹的纳米盘和荧光相关光谱(FCS)来应对这两个挑战。首先使用带负电荷的两亲共聚物Glyco-DIBMA提取膜蛋白。这使得在类似天然的脂质双层环境中自发形成含有荧光标记靶蛋白的纳米盘,FCS证实了这一点。然后将纳米盘进行无去污剂的CNE。随着原聚体数量的增加,纳米盘变得更大,由于电荷密度更高,导致在CNE中的迁移距离增加。至关重要的是,通过对从凝胶中切下的再溶解条带进行FCS分析表明,纳米盘在整个CNE过程中保持完整。此外,本研究中使用的膜蛋白,一种钾通道(KvAP)、一种钠通道(NavMs)、一种水通道(GlpF)和一种尿素通道(UreI),仅表现出可忽略不计的聚集,单个纳米盘的荧光亮度和扩散时间证明了这一点。此外,可以从每个纳米盘的亮度推断膜蛋白的寡聚状态。由于纯化的膜蛋白保留在类似天然的脂质双层环境中并避免暴露于去污剂,它们可立即用于下游的结构和功能研究。