An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the specificity of the sugar-binding protein NgcE, a component of the ABC transporter for N-acetylglucosamine in Streptomyces olivaceoviridis.

The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter Ngc for N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) of the chitin-degrader Streptomyces olivaceoviridis comprises the solute-binding protein NgcE, which has highest affinity for GlcNAc and N,N′-diacetylchitobiose {(GlcNAc)2} and reduced affinity for longer chitooligomers. NgcE was used to develop a generally applicable enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system. As a prerequisite, the reducing end of (GlcNAc)2 was coupled with the ethylamino group of 2-(4-aminophenyl)ethylamine. The resulting conjugate was linked with amino groups of bovine serum albumin (BSA) to gain the neoglycoprotein BSA-APEA-(GlcNAc)2, which was fixed to wells in microtitre-plates. The NgcE protein was shown to bind efficiently to the immobilized BSA-APEA-(GlcNAc)2. In competition assays, the affinity of NgcE was 1,000-fold higher for GlcNAc and (GlcNAc)2 than for (GlcNAc)3 and (GlcNAc)4. These results are consistent with those previously obtained by surface plasmon resonance. Since the ELISA method ...