Fluorescent Probes for Detecting Protein Interactions in Bacteria

Abstract

Protein interactions are essential for many biological functions to occur. Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) assay is a complementation-based technique used to study protein interactions. One benefit of this approach is that protein interactions as well as the location of that interaction can be studied under normal cellular conditions. BiFC works by the formation of a fluorescent complex when two proteins of interest attached to nonfluorescent fragments of a fluorescent protein interact. In this project we created BiFC constructs to study protein interactions in Bacteria involved in ribosome function. These molecular tools based on the BiFC method can be used as controls in studies of similar interactions in eukaryotic cells.