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Reversible, site‐specific immobilization of polyarginine‐tagged fusion proteins on mica surfaces
Author(s) -
Steffen Nock,
James A. Spudich,
P. Wagner
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(97)01040-5
Subject(s) - green fluorescent protein , fusion protein , mica , biophysics , chemistry , fusion , fluorescence , biochemistry , nanotechnology , gene , biology , recombinant dna , materials science , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
A large variety of genes is expressed as fusion proteins for the purpose of characterization and purification in molecular biology. We have used this strategy to append polyarginine peptides in order to achieve specific binding of the Arg‐tag to atomically flat, negatively charged mica surfaces. We show that the model protein, hexaarginine‐tagged green fluorescent protein (GFP), binds to mica via its Arg‐tag based on ion exchange of naturally occurring potassium cations. Only non‐specific binding was observed with the control protein that is free of the Arg‐tag. This novel technology will be widely applicable to orient functional proteins on flat surfaces.