Glycosylatable GFP as a compartment-specific membrane topology reporter.

Lee H, Min J, von Heijne G, Kim H

Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 427 (4) 780-784 [2012-11-02; online 2012-10-06]

Determination of the membrane topology is an essential step in structural and functional studies of integral membrane proteins, yet the choices of membrane topology reporters are limited and the experimental analysis can be laborious, especially in eukaryotic cells. Here, we present a robust membrane topology reporter, glycosylatable green fluorescent protein (gGFP). gGFP is fully fluorescent in the yeast cytosol but becomes glycosylated and does not fluoresce in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Thus, by assaying fluorescence and the glycosylation status of C-terminal fusions of gGFP to target membrane proteins in whole-cell lysates, the localization of the gGFP moiety (and hence the fusion joint) relative to the ER membrane can be unambiguously determined.

Affiliated researcher

PubMed 23047006

DOI 10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.09.138

Crossref 10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.09.138

pii: S0006-291X(12)01916-X


Publications 9.5.1