Affinity purification of GTPase proteins from oat root plasma membranes using biotinylated GTP

Biotinylated GTP was synthesized and it was demonstrated that this ligand was bi-functional: it competed with [3H]Gpp(NH)p for binding to membrane proteins and it bound to immobilized avidin. Peripheral plasma membrane proteins were solubilized in a low-salt wash, incubated with GTP-biotin and biotinylated proteins were coupled to an avidin column. Elution with excess biotin yielded 10 polypeptides as seen with a silver stained SDS-PAGE gel. Antisera raised against Ras, a small GTPase, strongly interacted with three proteins with MW of 38, 27 and 25 kDa and also with 6 other proteins. G alpha-common antibodies interacted with proteins of MW = 66 and 38 kDa. This method enables the rapid purification of GTP-binding proteins and opens the possibility to assign a role to specific GTPases in signal transduction pathways.