Investigation of the dimerization of proteins from the epidermal growth factor receptor family by single wavelength fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy

Single wavelength fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (SW- FCCS), introduced to study biomolecular interactions, has recently been reported to monitor enzyme activity by using a newly developed fluorescent protein variant together with cyan fluorescent protein. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, SW- FCCS is applied to detect interactions between membrane receptors in vivo by using the widely used enhanced green fluorescent protein and monomeric red fluorescent protein. The biological system studied here is the epidermal growth factor/ErbB receptor family, which plays pivotal roles in the development of organisms ranging from worms to humans. It is widely thought that a ligand binds to the monomeric form of the receptor and induces its dimeric form for activation. By using SW- FCCS and Forster resonance energy transfer, we show that the epidermal growth factor receptor and ErbB2 have preformed homo- and heterodimeric structures on the cell surface and quantitation of dimer fractions is performed by SW- FCCS. These receptors are major targets of anti-cancer drug development, and the receptors' homo- and heterodimeric structures are relevant for such developments.