Nuclear membrane-tethered FRAP method for measuring protein complex off-rates in live cells

Abstract Understanding the stability or binding affinity of protein complex members is important for understanding their regulation and roles in cells. While there are many biochemical methods to measure protein-protein interactions in vitro, these methods often rely on the ability to robustly purify components individually. Moreover, few methods have been developed to study protein complexes within live cells. Binding parameters for cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complexes have been challenging to measure due to difficulty expressing and purifying CDKs separately from activating cyclins. Here, we develop a method to measure off-rates of protein complex components in live-cells. Our method relies on the stable tethering of CDK to the inner nuclear membrane (Figure 1), and the utilization of FRAP to measure the off-rate of soluble, fluorescently-tagged CDK binding proteins. We use this method to study dimeric CDK complexes, measuring the off-rates of cyclins or INK4 CDK inhibitor p16 from CDKs, and trimeric CDK complexes, measuring the off-rate of cyclins and CIP/KIP CDK inhibitors p21 and p27 when bound together.