In vitro Assessment of Pathogen Effector Binding to Host Proteins by Surface Plasmon Resonance

The mechanisms of virulence and immunity are often governed by molecular interactions between pathogens and host proteins. The study of these interactions has major implications on understanding virulence activities, and how the host immune system recognizes the presence of pathogens to initiate an immune response. Frequently, the association between pathogen molecules and host proteins are assessed using qualitative techniques. As small differences in binding affinity can have a major biological effect, in vitro techniques that can quantitatively compare the binding between different proteins are required. However, these techniques can be manually intensive and often require large amounts of purified proteins. Here we present a simplified Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) protocol that allows a reproducible side-by-side quantitative comparison of the binding between different proteins, even in cases where the binding affinity cannot be confidently calculated. We used this method to assess the binding of virulence proteins (termed effectors) from the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, to a domain of a host immune receptor. This approach represents a rapid and quantitative way to study how pathogen molecules bind to host proteins, requires only limited quantities of proteins, and is highly reproducible. Although this method requires the use of an SPR instrument, these can often be accessed through shared scientific services at many institutions. Thus, this technique can be implemented in any study that aims to understand host-pathogen interactions, irrespective of the expertise of the investigator.