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Experiments of protein-protein interactions in vivo by the BACTH system

Kronqvist, Felix (2017) MOBK01 20162
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
Understanding the puzzling network of proteins inside cells

For the last 20 years scientists has struggled to completely understand the intricate network of proteins inside cells, and recently new methods to analyze protein interactions has been invented. A protein can “fit” into other proteins like pieces of a puzzle, which can in turn create a reaction within the cell. A single protein can possibly fit into hundreds of other proteins which might lead to very subtle and hard to detect responses. In order to detect these very elusive responses scientists has developed a method which produces a color when two proteins fits into each other. All of this is done inside living cells which is remarkable and important because scientists might... (More)
Understanding the puzzling network of proteins inside cells

For the last 20 years scientists has struggled to completely understand the intricate network of proteins inside cells, and recently new methods to analyze protein interactions has been invented. A protein can “fit” into other proteins like pieces of a puzzle, which can in turn create a reaction within the cell. A single protein can possibly fit into hundreds of other proteins which might lead to very subtle and hard to detect responses. In order to detect these very elusive responses scientists has developed a method which produces a color when two proteins fits into each other. All of this is done inside living cells which is remarkable and important because scientists might detect these mysterious puzzle combinations of proteins, which are often undetectable outside cells in a test tube.

As you can imagine a puzzle piece has many sides it can fit into other pieces, and so scientists can also investigate which side of a protein fits into another. If you visualize a puzzle piece and look at its protrusions, you can imagine a scientist cutting of one of these protrusions or filling the gap of a puzzle piece. This will possibly disable a protein from fitting into another protein, and so scientists can learn if this was an important shape for the protein to be able to fit into other proteins.

If scientists manage to completely understand the way a protein fits, they could then theoretically develop medicines which can target specific parts of proteins in humans and other living beings. It could be proteins which have been shaped incorrectly by the cell and is causing negative symptoms. Or it could be an important protein for an infectious bacteria to survive.
What I have managed to discover with the help of previous studies is the ability to detect these protein interactions inside cells by connecting together the proteins we are testing with another protein which produces a color. Let’s say we are testing protein X and Y, if we have color protein on X and on Y which only produces color if X and Y fits together we will be able to tell if they are interacting if we see a color. I didn’t discover this method but I was able to test how reliable it is to produce results. And it turned out to be a fairly effective method for this experiment.

In the future we might explore all the possible interactions among proteins in cells and solve many great mysteries yet to be uncovered.

Supervisor: Claes von Wachenfeldt
Degree Project 15 credits 2016
Department of Biology, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kronqvist, Felix
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20162
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8902546
date added to LUP
2017-02-06 16:33:39
date last changed
2017-02-06 16:33:39
@misc{8902546,
  author       = {{Kronqvist, Felix}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Experiments of protein-protein interactions in vivo by the BACTH system}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}