ChromoBlog

Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) describes the isolation of a protein and its binding partners from a cell extract using a Nanobody or antibody that is bound to beads. The protein, that directly interacts with the Nanobody, or antibody beads is called “bait”. The binding partner that is indirectly precipitated is called “prey”.

Co-IP describes the immunoprecipitation of a protein of interest and its interacting partners.

Protein abundance is crucial for immunoprecipitation

During an immunoprecipitation (IP), the protein of interest (POI) is pulled down with a specific antibody or Nanobody conjugated to beads such as agarose or magnetic agarose. Unbound sample content, for example, other proteins, cell debris, and lipids, is removed by washing, while the precipitated protein is enriched on the beads.

More and more publications are coming up using ChromoTek’s Spot-Tag system, the first peptide-tag specific Nanobody system for universal capture & detection applications.

Interaction of Spot-Nanobody (green) with Spot Peptide

The conjugation of the binding domains of camelid heavy chain antibodies, also known as V_HHs or Nanobodies, to fluorescent dyes is generating versatile tools for fluorescence microscopy applications like immunofluorescence (IF) and super resolution microscopy (SRM): The small size Nanobodies provide better penetration into tissue and dense cell compartments, plus the small label to epitope displacement provides higher resolution. In addition, the Nanobodies’ high affinity binding to epitope makes them attractive probes for other assays like ELISA.

ChromoTek, part of Proteintech group, provides multiple fluorescent dye (Alexa Fluor^® and ATTO) conjugated Nanobodies that are optimized by application:

ChromoTek's Nano-Traps are optimized for the immunoprecipitation (IP) of proteins and their interacting factors. Nano-Traps comprise of a Nanobody/ V_HH conjugated to beads. For 3 Nano-Traps, e.g. GFP-Trap^®,  RFP-Trap^®, and Spot-Trap^®, we offer different types of beads:

• Agarose beads
• Magnetic Agarose beads
• Magnetic Particles M-270

Immunoprecipitation with GFP-Trap.
I: Input, FT: Flow-Through, B: Bound

Based on the properties of the different beads (see table), we recommend:

• Agarose beads for very low background and high binding capacity IP
• Magnetic Agarose beads for magnetic separation and high binding capacity IP
• Magnetic Particles M-270 for IP of very large proteins/complexes
  

Characterization of antibodies

Essential aspects of how antibodies (Abs) bind to their targets are their affinity and binding kinetics. In order to determine these parameters, different biophysical methods such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Bio-Layer Interferometry (BLI), MicroScale Thermophoresis (MST), or Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) can be applied. Some of these methods require the immobilization of the antibody on a surface and the titration of the target antigen to measure the dissociation constant K_D and the association and dissociation rates k_a and k_d (also called on- and off rates k_on and k_off).

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) like GFP or RFP and their derivatives are commonly used for virus research. Frequently, they are applied as fluorescent markers in microscopy or cell sorting experiments and as protein tags for protein purification, immunoprecipitation or protein-protein interaction assays. Here, we provide a short outline that describes how FPs have been used in the current SARS-CoV-2 research. Please note that this summary does not provide a complete overview; also, many referenced papers are pre-prints without peer reviews.

Why Spot-Tag can be used to purify any protein

 

Introduction

Proteins often have very different individual characteristics and requirements for manipulation. Not every purification tag in combination with the desired purification resin is suitable for every protein. Some proteins are sensitive towards wash or elution buffers, while others are difficult to purify because the selected affinity resin can be contaminated by host cell proteins. Taking these points into consideration, the selection of both the affinity tag and the affinity resin can have a strong impact on protein purity and yield, which is often dependent on the target protein. Requirements for an affinity resin comprise (i) high purity (minimal contaminations), (ii) high yield of the purified protein, and (iii) a broad buffer stability. Ideally, affinity tags should be (iv) inert and (v) short in order to not or minimally affect the purified protein.

Although the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria Green fluorescent protein (GFP) was already discovered in the 1960s, it took three more decades until it was eventually cloned and could be utilized as a marker protein in E.coli and C. elegans. Since then it has developed into one of the most widely studied and exploited proteins in life sciences. Correspondingly, the importance of GFP was recognized in 2008 when the Nobel Committee awarded Osamu Shimomura, Marty Chalfie, and Roger Tsien the Chemistry Nobel Prize "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP."