Estrogen receptor alpha/co-activator interaction assay: TR-FRET

Methods Mol Biol. 2015:1278:545-53. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2425-7_36.

Abstract

Time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer, TR-FRET, is a time-gated fluorescence intensity measurement which defines the relative proximity of two biomolecules (e.g., proteins, peptides, or DNA) based on the extent of non-radiative energy transfer between two fluorophores with overlapping emission/excitation spectra. In these assays, an excited lanthanide ion acts as a "donor" that transfers energy to an "acceptor" fluorophore through dipole-dipole interactions. A FRET signal is reported as the ratio of acceptor to donor emission following donor excitation. When a donor-conjugated protein interacts with an acceptor-conjugated protein, the donor and acceptor fluorophores are brought in close proximity allowing energy transfer from the donor to the acceptor resulting in a FRET signal. Because the lanthanide donors have a long emission half-life, the energy transfer measurement can be time-gated, which dramatically reduces assay interference (due to background autofluorescence and direct acceptor excitation) and thereby increases data quality. Here, we describe a TR-FRET assay that monitors the interaction of the estrogen receptor (ER) α ligand binding domain (labeled with a terbium chelate via a streptavidin-biotin interaction) with a sequence of coactivator protein SRC3 (labeled directly with fluorescein) and the disruption of this interaction with a peptide and a small molecule inhibitor.

MeSH terms

  • Estrogen Receptor alpha / chemistry
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha / metabolism*
  • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / methods*
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 3 / chemistry
  • Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 3 / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods*
  • Signal Transduction

Substances

  • ESR1 protein, human
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha
  • Ligands
  • NCOA3 protein, human
  • Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 3