Designed Phosphoprotein Recognition in Escherichia coli

Protein phosphorylation is a central biological mechanism for cellular adaptation to environmental changes. Dysregulation of phosphorylation signaling is implicated in a wide variety of diseases. Thus, the ability to detect and quantify protein phosphorylation is highly desirable for both diagnostic and research applications. Here we present a general strategy for detecting phosphopeptide-protein interactions in Escherichia coli. We first redesign a model tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) protein to recognize phosphoserine in a sequence-specific fashion and characterize the interaction with its target phosphopeptide in vitro. We then combine in vivo site-specific incorporation of phosphoserine with split mCherry assembly to observe the designed phosphopeptide-protein interaction specificity in E. coli. This in vivo strategy for detecting and characterizing phosphopeptide-protein interactions has numerous potential applications for the study of natural interactions and the design of novel ones.