In vitro detection of NEMO-ubiquitin binding using DELFIA and microscale thermophoresis assays

Canonical NF-κB signaling in response to various stimuli converges at the level of the IκB kinase (IKK) complex to ultimately activate NF-κB. To achieve this, the IKK complex uses one of its regulatory subunit (IKKγ/NEMO) to sense ubiquitin chains formed by upstream complexes. Various studies have shown that different Ubiquitin chains are involved in the binding of NEMO and thereby the activation of NF-κB. We have utilized two distinct biochemical methods, i.e., Dissociation-Enhanced Lanthanide Fluorescence Immunoassay (DELFIA) and Microscale Thermophoresis (MST), to detect the interaction of NEMO to linear and K63-linked Ubiquitin chains, respectively. Here, we describe the brief basis of the methods and a detailed underlying protocol.