Dimethyl suberimidate cross-linking of oligo(dT) to DNA-binding proteins

Dimethyl suberimidate is a bifunctional reagent that is used for cross-linking the protein components of oligomeric macromolecules. In this report, dimethyl suberimidate is shown to specifically cross-link oligo(dT) of varying lengths to the DNA-binding subunits of a multimeric helicase-primase encoded by herpes simplex virus type 1. This result indicates that dimethyl suberimidate and other imidoester cross-linking reagents may be useful for characterizing the interaction of oligo(dT) with proteins that bind single-stranded DNA.