Development of an autofluorescent translocation biosensor system to investigate protein-protein interactions in living cells

Protein-protein interactions are crucial for all cellular events. To analyze protein-protein interactions in live mammalian cells, we developed novel protein translocation biosensors composed of glutathione S-transferase, mutants of GFP, and a rational combination of nuclear import and export signals. Nuclear accumulation of the cytoplasmic biosensors served as the reliable indicator, which was induced by the formation of protein complexes and could easily be detected by fluorescence microscopy. The efficacy of the system was systematically investigated by mapping the p53/mdm2 protein interaction interface. Specificity and general applicability of the biosensors were confirmed by studying additional classes of protein interaction domains (IDs), e.g., the leucine zipper IDs of Jun/ Fos and the coiled-coil ID of Bcr-Abl in different cell lines. Importantly, we found that, in comparison to protein complementation assays, our system proved highly efficient and reversible and thus suited for the identification of molecular decoys to prevent specific protein-protein interactions in living cells. Reversibility was demonstrated in competition experiments by overexpressing the specific IDs or by the application of a p53/mdm2 protein interaction inhibitor. Thus, besides the convenient mapping of protein IDs in living cells, the modular translocation system has great potential to be employed in numerous cell-based assays for the identification of small-molecule protein interaction inhibitors as potential novel therapeutics.