Yeast two-hybrid screening for proteins that interact with alpha1-adrenergic receptors

AIM: To find novel proteins that may bind to α1A-adrenergic receptor (α1A-AR) and investigate their interactions with the other two α1-AR subtypes (α1B-AR and α1D-AR) with an expectation to provide new leads for the function study of the receptors. METHODS: Yeast two-hybrid assay was performed to screen a human brain cDNA library using the C terminus of α1A-AR (α1A-AR-CT) as bait. X-Gal assay and o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) assay were subsequently conducted to further qualitatively or quantitatively confirm the interactions between receptors and the three identified proteins. RESULTS: (1) Selection medium screening identified segments of bone morphogenetic protein-1 (BMP-1), active Bcr-related protein (Abr), and filamin-C as binding partners of α1A-AR-CT in yeast cells respectively. Besides, protein segments of BMP-1 and Abr could only specifically interact with α1A-AR-CT while filamin-C segment interacted with all three α1-AR subtypes. (2) In X-Gal assay, the cotransformants of α1A-AR-CT and BMP-1 segments turned strong blue at about 30 min while other positive transformants only developed weak blue at about 5-6 h. (3) In ONPG assay, interaction (shown in β-galactosidase activity) between α1A-AR-CT and BMP-1 segments was about 30 times stronger than that of control (P<0.01), while other positive interactions were only about 2-5 times as strong as those of controls (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: In yeast cells BMP-1, Abr and/or filamin-C could interact with three α1-AR subtypes, among which, interaction between BMP-1 and α1A-AR was the strongest while other interactions between proteins and receptors were relatively weak.