Assessment of the integral membrane protein topology in living cells

Plant J. 2006 Apr;46(1):145-54. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02674.x.

Abstract

The bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) phenomenon has been successfully applied for in vivo protein-protein interaction studies and protein tagging analysis. Here we report a novel BiFC-based technique for investigation of integral membrane protein topology in living plant cells. This technique relies on the formation of a fluorescent complex between a non-fluorescent fragment of the yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) targeted into a specific cellular compartment and a counterpart fragment attached to the integral membrane protein N- or C-terminus or inserted into the internal loop(s). We employed this technique for topological studies of beet yellows virus-encoded p6 membrane-embedded movement protein, a protein with known topology, and the potato mop-top virus-encoded integral membrane TGBp2 protein with predicted topology. The results confirm that p6 is a type III integral transmembrane protein. Using a novel method, the central hydrophilic region of TGBp2 was localized into the ER lumen, whereas the N- and C-termini localized to the cytosol. We conclude that the BiFC-based reporter system for membrane protein topology analysis is a relatively fast and efficient method that can be used for high-throughput analysis of proteins integrated into the endoplasmic reticulum in living plant cells.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Endoplasmic Reticulum / chemistry
  • Intracellular Membranes / chemistry
  • Luminescent Proteins / analysis
  • Membrane Proteins / analysis
  • Membrane Proteins / chemistry*
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods*
  • Nicotiana / cytology
  • Nicotiana / ultrastructure
  • Plant Leaves / cytology
  • Plant Leaves / ultrastructure
  • Plants / chemistry*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary

Substances

  • Luminescent Proteins
  • Membrane Proteins