Co-immunoprecipitation from transfected cells

One of the most commonly used methods for determining whether two proteins can interact is co-immunoprecipitation. Co-immunoprecipitation relies on the ability of an antibody to stably and specifically bind complexes containing a bait protein. The antibody provides a means of immobilizing these complexes on a solid matrix, which in the protocol presented here is accomplished through interaction with Protein A, so that irrelevant proteins can be washed away. The presence of target proteins in the bait complexes is determined by Western blot. Because of the biochemical diversity of protein-protein interactions, it is not possible to describe a single set of conditions that will work for every immunoprecipitation experiment. Instead, the goal of this chapter is to provide practical starting conditions for co-immunoprecipitation assays and to describe potential modifications to the procedure so that conditions can be optimized.