微生物学

Non-receptor protein-tyrosine kinases regulate cellular responses to many external signals and are important drug discovery targets for cancer and infectious diseases. While many assays exist for the assessment of kinase activity in vitro, methods that report changes in tyrosine kinase activity in single cells have the potential to provide information about kinase responses at the cell population level. In this protocol, we combined bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC), an established method for the assessment of protein-protein interactions, and immunofluorescence staining with phosphospecific antibodies to characterize changes in host cell tyrosine kinase activity in the presence of an HIV-1 virulence factor, Nef. Specifically, two Tec family kinases (Itk and Btk) as well as Nef were fused to complementary, non-fluorescent fragments of the Venus variant of YFP. Each kinase was expressed in 293T cells in the presence or absence of Nef and immunostained for protein expression and activity with anti-phosphotyrosine (pTyr) antibodies. Multi-color confocal microscopy revealed the interaction of Nef with each kinase (BiFC), kinase activity, and kinase protein expression. Strong BiFC signals were observed when Nef was co-expressed with both Itk and Btk, indicative of interaction, and a strong anti-pTyr immunoreactivity was also seen. The BiFC, pTyr, and kinase expression signals co-localized to the plasma membrane, consistent with Nef-mediated kinase activation in this subcellular compartment. Image analysis allowed calculation of pTyr-to-kinase protein ratios, which showed a range of responses in individual cells across the population that shifted upward in the presence of Nef and back down in the presence of a kinase inhibitor. This method has the potential to reveal changes in steady-state non-receptor tyrosine kinase activity and subcellular localization in a cell population in response to other protein-kinase interactions, information that is not attainable from immunoblotting or other in vitro methods.

This is a detailed protocol of an autophosphorylation and phosphotransfer activities of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 full-length Histidine Kinase 2 (Hik2) protein described by Ibrahim et al., 2016. In this protocol, radioactively labelled ATP was used to study an autophosphorylation and phosphotransfer activity of the full-length Hik2 protein.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that stress signalling is important for tolerance of fungal species to antifungal chemicals and proteins. The high-osmolarity glycerol (HOG) pathway responds to a number of stressors including osmotic and oxidative stress. This protocol describes a method to detect activation of the Candida albicans (C. albicans) MAPK Hog1 by monitoring its phosphorylation in response to an antifungal protein.

Protein phosphorylation plays a central role in signal transduction in bacteria. However, separation and detection of the phosphorylated protein from its nonphosphorylated form remain challenging. Here we describe a method to detect phosphorylation of the Bordetella pertussis response regulator BvgA, which is phosphorylated at an aspartate residue (Boulanger et al., 2013). This method is based on the proprietary adduct, Phos-tag^TM, a dinuclear metal complex, which together with Zn²⁺ or Mn²⁺, forms a complex with a phosphomonoesterdianion, such as the phosphorylated aspartate of a response regulator (Barbieri and Stock, 2008; Kinoshita and Kinoshita-Kikuta, 2011). For in vivo detection, B. pertussis cells are lysed in mild formic acid at 4 °C to minimize the disruption of the phospho-aspartate bond, and the phosphorylated BvgA is separated from its nonphosphorylated form by electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) containing Phos-tag^TM. Both forms of BvgA are subsequently detected by Western Blot analysis. Quantification of the level of phosphorylated BvgA formed after treatment with acetyl phosphate in vitro is also easily accomplished. Thus, this technique allows one to readily assess the levels of BvgA phosphorylation in B. pertussis and in E. coli under different laboratory conditions in vivo or after phosphorylation under varying reaction conditions in vitro (this research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NIDDK).