Pil1 Co-tethering Assay to Detect Protein-Protein Interactions in the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Methods Mol Biol. 2025:2862:93-102. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4168-2_7.

Abstract

Protein-protein interactions play critical roles in biological processes. We previously developed the Pil1 co-tethering assay, an imaging-based method to detect protein-protein interactions in living Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells. This assay leverages the distinct localization pattern of the Pil1 protein by fusing a bait protein to Pil1 and examining whether a prey protein co-localize with the Pil1-fused bait. Here, we present an improved protocol of the Pil1 co-tethering assay. In this protocol, modified stable integration vectors (SIVs) with a NotI site as the linearization site are used to express bait and prey proteins. We expect that this protocol will enhance the application of the Pil1 co-tethering assay for studying protein-protein interactions.

Keywords: Fission yeast; Live-cell imaging; Pil1 co-tethering assay; Protein–protein interactions; Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

MeSH terms

  • Genetic Vectors / genetics
  • Genetic Vectors / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Mapping* / methods
  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins* / genetics
  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins* / metabolism
  • Schizosaccharomyces* / genetics
  • Schizosaccharomyces* / metabolism

Substances

  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins