Quantitative Investigation of Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions by Biosensor Surface Plasmon Resonance.

Biosensor-surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology has emerged as a powerful label-free approach for the study of nucleic acid interactions in real time. The method provides simultaneous equilibrium and kinetic characterization for biomolecular interactions with minimal materials and without an external probe. A detailed and practical guide for protein-DNA interaction analyses using biosensor-SPR methods is presented. Details of the SPR technology and basic fundamentals are described with recommendations on the preparation of the SPR instrument, sensor chips and samples, as well as extensive information on experimental design, quantitative and qualitative data analyses and presentation. A specific example of the interaction of a transcription factor with DNA is shown with results evaluated by both kinetic and steady-state SPR methods.