Title | A split protease-E. coli ClpXP system quantifies protein-protein interactions in Escherichia coli cells. | ||
Author | Wang, Shengchen; Zhang, Faying; Mei, Meng; Wang, Ting; Yun, Yueli; Yang, Shihui; Zhang, Guimin; Yi, Li | ||
Journal | Commun Biol | Publication Year/Month | 2021-Jul |
PMID | 34230602 | PMCID | PMC8260793 |
Affiliation + expend | 1.State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Hubei, China. |
Characterizing protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is an effective method to help explore protein function. Here, through integrating a newly identified split human Rhinovirus 3 C (HRV 3 C) protease, super-folder GFP (sfGFP), and ClpXP-SsrA protein degradation machinery, we developed a fluorescence-assisted single-cell methodology (split protease-E. coli ClpXP (SPEC)) to explore protein-protein interactions for both eukaryotic and prokaryotic species in E. coli cells. We firstly identified a highly efficient split HRV 3 C protease with high re-assembly ability and then incorporated it into the SPEC method. The SPEC method could convert the cellular protein-protein interaction to quantitative fluorescence signals through a split HRV 3 C protease-mediated proteolytic reaction with high efficiency and broad temperature adaptability. Using SPEC method, we explored the interactions among effectors of representative type I-E and I-F CRISPR/Cas complexes, which combining with subsequent studies of Cas3 mutations conferred further understanding of the functions and structures of CRISPR/Cas complexes.