Construction of ordered protein arrays

Methods Mol Biol. 2005:300:325-48. doi: 10.1385/1-59259-858-7:325.

Abstract

Artificially ordered protein arrays provide a facile approach to a variety of problems in biology and nanoscience. Current demonstration systems use either nucleic acid tethers or methyltransferase fusions in order to target proteins or peptides of interest to nucleic acid scaffolds. These demonstrations point to the large number of useful devices and assemblies that can be envisioned using this approach, including smart biological probes and drug delivery systems. In principle, these systems are now capable of imitating the earliest forms of prebiotic organisms and can be expected to reach the complexity of a small virus in the near future. Third-generation methyltransferase inhibitors provide an example of a smart chemotherapeutics that can be constructed with this approach. We describe the use of mechanistic enzymology, computer-aided design, and microfluidic chip-based capillary electrophoresis in assessing the final assembly and testing of designs of this type.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / biosynthesis
  • Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / genetics
  • Models, Molecular
  • Nuclear Localization Signals / biosynthesis
  • Nuclear Localization Signals / genetics
  • Oligodeoxyribonucleotides
  • Protein Array Analysis / methods*

Substances

  • Nuclear Localization Signals
  • Oligodeoxyribonucleotides
  • CCWGG-specific type II deoxyribonucleases
  • Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific