Name: effect of fluorescent proteins on fusion partners using polyglutamine toxicity assays in yeast
Uploaded: 2018-11-28T14:45:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Effect of Fluorescent Proteins on Fusion Partners Using Polyglutamine Toxicity Assays in Yeast at JoVE.com

This study is supported by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research to M.L.D. and P.L. The work presented here is supported by a John R. Evans Leader Fund award from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and a matching fund from the Ontario Research Fund to P.L. Y.J. is supported by an MSc to PhD transfer scholarship from the Dean of the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario. S.D.G. is supported by a PhD Scholarship from ALS Canada.

1. Generation of New Fluorescently Tagged Httex1 Reporters for an Expression in Yeast
Note: This section has been modified from the protocol by Jiang et al.16 and Albakri et al.19.
<ol>
	<li>Design primers to amplify the sequence encoding the fluorescent protein or interest by PCR. The forward primer should include a leader sequence to assist the restriction enzyme during digestion (GATC), followed by a SpeI restric...

<ol>
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In this article, various assays to measure the aggregation of Httex1 polyQ expansions and their effect on yeast growth were employed as a model to study how different fluorescent proteins alter their fusion partners in the context of fluorescent reporters. Using a GFP variant (ymsfGFP) as a positive control, we showed that this detects significant changes in polyQ toxicity and aggregation between different fluorescent tags and allows for a direct and rapid comparison of the polyQ-FP fusion performance against ...

Since the initial characterization of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequorea victoria1, a wide palette of genetically encoded FPs have been developed, allowing cell biologists to simultaneously localize and track multiple cellular events/proteins in living cells2,3. FPs are derived from multiple organisms, from jellyfish to coral, and therefore, display specific biophysical properties that divert extensively beyond their respective fluorescent spectrum. These properties include brightness, photostability, and a tendency to oligomerize among others2,4. Selecting monomeric FPs is an important aspect in the selection of a suitable tag when designing a fluorescent reporter, in order to minimize inappropriate interactions and alterations of the fusion partner&#39;s function and maximize the reporter efficiency for a given cellular compartment4,5,6. While GFP has, over time, been evolved to minimize the effect of adding the fluorescent tag to the fusion partner5,7,8, how new FP variants perform compared to GFP remains difficult to assess.
Few methods exist to characterize the behavior of FPs. Most of them involve testing biophysical properties of FPs using biochemical approaches, such as ultracentrifugation and gel filtration protocols9,10,11,12. Such methods have the caveat of using purified FPs in solution, offering little insight into their behavior in intact cells. The development of the organized smooth endoplasmic reticulum (OSER) assay offers a quantifiable assessment of FPs&#39; tendency to oligomerize in living cells13 by testing the ability of overexpressed FPs to reorganize endoplasmic reticulum tubules into OSER whorls14. This technique can successfully detect changes between monomeric and oligomeric variants of GFP and other FPs. However, it relies mostly on overexpression in transiently transfected cells, and the quantitation and image analysis can be time-consuming unless the technique is adopted as an automated data collection and analysis workflow.
In order to complement these approaches, we established an assay that takes advantage of the effect of fluorescent tags on the toxicity and aggregation of polyQ expansions in yeast15,16. The expansion of the polyQ stretch with more than 36 repeats within the first exon of the gene encoding the huntingtin protein (Htt) is associated with Huntington&#39;s disease17,18. The expression of expanded Httex1 in yeast results in a strong aggregation of the misfolded Htt protein coupled to a severe growth defect. Interestingly, these phenotypes are strongly influenced by the sequences flanking the polyQ stretch, including FPs15,16. It was rationalized that the different properties of FPs can differentially affect polyQ toxicity in yeast. Indeed, compared to GFP-like FPs, red fluorescent proteins and their evolved forms have shown a reduced toxicity and aggregation16. This manuscript provides a detailed protocol to assess the effect of the next generation of FPs on polyQ toxicity and aggregation in yeast. This assay allows for a rapid and potentially high-content analysis of FP variants that can be used in parallel with previously characterized techniques for the optimal characterization of new FPs and can assess how they perform compared to GFP.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>5-alpha Competent E. coli (High efficiency)</td>
			<td>New Englanfd Biolab</td>
			<td>C2987</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SpeI-HF</td>
			<td>New Englanfd Biolab</td>
			<td>R3133</td>
			<td>High fidelity enzymes are preferred</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SalI-HF</td>
			<td>New Englanfd Biolab</td>
			<td>R0138</td>
			<td>High fidelity enzymes are preferred</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Agarose</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP160</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LB-Agar</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP1425</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LB-Broth</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP1426</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ampicilin</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP1760</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PfuUltra High-fidelity DNA Polymerase</td>
			<td>Agilent Technologies</td>
			<td>600382</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EPOCH2 microplate spectrophotometer</td>
			<td>BioTek Instruments inc</td>
			<td>EPOCH2TC</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Yeast Pin Replicator</td>
			<td>V&#38;P Scientific inc.</td>
			<td>VP407AH</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SPI imager</td>
			<td>S&#38;P Robotics inc.</td>
			<td>spImager-M</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Zeiss LSM 800 confocal with AryScan</td>
			<td>Carl Zeiss Microscopy</td>
			<td>LSM 800</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>8 well Lab-Tek imaging chambers</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>12565470</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bio-Dot apparatus</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td>1706545</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Chemi Doc XRS+</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td>1708265</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>anti-FLAG M1 antibody</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>F3040</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Goat anti-mouse IgG alexa 555 secondary antibody</td>
			<td>Thermo&#160;</td>
			<td>A32727</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid MiniPrep Kit</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>K0503</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid Gel extraction Kit</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>K0831</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PCR Purification Kit</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>K0702</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Prizm</td>
			<td>GraphPad</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TAE (Tris-Acetate-EDTA)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP13354</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

effect of fluorescent proteins on fusion partners using polyglutamine toxicity assays in yeast

For the investigation of protein localization and trafficking using live cell imaging, researchers often rely on fusing their protein of interest to a fluorescent reporter. The constantly evolving list of genetically encoded fluorescent proteins (FPs) presents users with several alternatives when it comes to fluorescent fusion design. Each FP has specific optical and biophysical properties that can affect the biochemical, cellular, and functional properties of the resulting fluorescent fusions. For instance, several FPs tend to form nonspecific oligomers that are susceptible to impede on the function of the fusion partner. Unfortunately, only a few methods exist to test the impact of FPs on the behavior of the fluorescent reporter. Here, we describe a simple method that enables the rapid assessment of the impact of FPs using polyglutamine (polyQ) toxicity assays in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PolyQ-expanded huntingtin proteins are associated with the onset of Huntington&#39;s disease (HD), where the expanded huntingtin aggregates into toxic oligomers and inclusion bodies. The aggregation and toxicity of polyQ expansions in yeast are highly dependent on the sequences flanking the polyQ region, including the presence of fluorescent tags, thus providing an ideal experimental platform to study the impact of FPs on the behavior of their fusion partner.

FPs have different biophysical properties, including their tendency to oligomerize, that can affect the behavior of their fusion partners in the context of fluorescent reporters. This protocol describes a simple method where multiple FPs can be fused to toxic polyQ expansions. Since polyQ toxicity is highly dependent on the sequences flanking the polyQ stretch15, this assay allows a rapid and direct comparison of fluorescent polyQ fusion reporters (<strong class="x...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Effect of Fluorescent Proteins on Fusion Partners Using Polyglutamine Toxicity Assays in Yeast at JoVE.com

Effect of Fluorescent Proteins on Fusion Partners Using Polyglutamine Toxicity Assays in Yeast

This article describes protocols to assess the effect of fluorescent proteins on the aggregation and toxicity of misfolded polyglutamine expansion for the rapid evaluation of a newly uncharacterized fluorescent protein in the context of fluorescent reporters.

For the investigation of protein localization and trafficking using live cell imaging, researchers often rely on fusing their protein of interest to a ...

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