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Type-3 BRET, an improved competition-based bioluminescence resonance energy transfer assay
James H Felce1, Rachel G Knox1, Simon J Davis1
1Radcliffe Department of Clinical Medicine and Medical Research Council Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
None:
We show that in conventional, competition-based bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays of membrane protein stoichiometry, the presence of competitors can alter tagged-protein density and artifactually reduce energy transfer efficiency. A well-characterized monomeric type I membrane protein, CD86, and two G protein-coupled receptors β2AR and mCannR2, all of which behave as dimers in these conventional assays, exhibit monomeric behavior in an improved competition-based type-3 BRET assay designed to circumvent such artifacts.
