Versatile screening for binary protein-protein interactions by yeast two-hybrid mating

Methods Mol Biol. 2008:484:145-59. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59745-398-1_10.

Abstract

Identification of binary protein-protein interactions is a crucial step in determining the molecular context and functional pathways of proteins. State-of-the-art proteomics techniques provide high-throughput information on the content of proteomes and protein complexes, but give little information about transient interactions, about the binary protein pairs, or about the interacting epitopes. A powerful method to reveal this information is the yeast two-hybrid system. We have employed an optimized GAL4-based yeast two-hybrid system to dissect the photoreceptor cilium-associated protein complex around the retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator (RPGR) in mammalian photoreceptors. This enabled us to identify associating protein partners that, similar to RPGR, were also associated with a heterogeneous group of inherited retinal degenerations arising from ciliary defects. We describe how to generate high content pretransformed cDNA libraries, and perform an efficient yeast mating screen for protein-protein interactions with any bait protein of interest.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Genes, Reporter
  • Humans
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Two-Hybrid System Techniques* / instrumentation
  • Yeasts* / genetics
  • Yeasts* / metabolism

Substances

  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins