Epitope Mapping of Antidiacylglycerol Kinase α Monoclonal Antibody DaMab-2

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is responsible for the enzymatic conversion of diacylglycerol (DG) to phosphatidic acid (PA). Both DG and PA serve as signaling molecules; therefore, DGK functions as a key enzyme between DG- and PA-mediated signaling. DGKα, one of the 10 DGK isozymes, is involved in T cell function and has been shown to localize in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Furthermore, DGKα translocates to the plasma membrane in response to T cell receptor stimulation. Recently, we developed a specific monoclonal antibody (mAb), DaMab-2 (mouse IgG 1 , kappa), against DGKα. DaMab-2 is very useful in immunocytochemical analysis using HeLa cells. In this study, we characterized the binding epitope of DaMab-2 using Western blot and revealed that Cys246, Lys249, Pro252, and Cys253 of DGKα are important for DaMab-2 binding to the DGKα protein. Our findings can be applied for the production of more functional anti-DGKα mAbs.