Quantifying domain-ligand affinities and specificities by high-throughput holdup assay

Nat Methods. 2015 Aug;12(8):787-93. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3438. Epub 2015 Jun 8.

Abstract

Many protein interactions are mediated by small linear motifs interacting specifically with defined families of globular domains. Quantifying the specificity of a motif requires measuring and comparing its binding affinities to all its putative target domains. To this end, we developed the high-throughput holdup assay, a chromatographic approach that can measure up to 1,000 domain-motif equilibrium binding affinities per day. After benchmarking the approach on 210 PDZ-peptide pairs with known affinities, we determined the affinities of two viral PDZ-binding motifs derived from human papillomavirus E6 oncoproteins for 209 PDZ domains covering 79% of the human 'PDZome'. We obtained sharply sequence-dependent binding profiles that quantitatively describe the PDZome recognition specificity of each motif. This approach, applicable to many categories of domain-ligand interactions, has wide potential for quantifying the specificities of interactomes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Motifs
  • Chromatography
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / chemistry
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays*
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Ligands
  • Oncogene Proteins, Viral / chemistry
  • PDZ Domains*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods*
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Proteome
  • Repressor Proteins / chemistry
  • Systems Biology

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • E6 protein, Human papillomavirus type 16
  • E6 protein, Human papillomavirus type 18
  • Ligands
  • Oncogene Proteins, Viral
  • Proteins
  • Proteome
  • Repressor Proteins