Turn Up the Lex Appeal

Schematic illustration of the LexA-based yeast two-hybrid interaction. Source: OriGene Technologies, Inc. 97/98 Catalog. Reprinted with permission. The DupLEX-ATM system from OriGene Technologies is a LexA-based two-hybrid assay for the detection of protein-protein interactions in vivo (J. Gyuris et al., Cell 75:791-803, 1993). The LexA system is conceptually similar to the prototypical GAL4-based two-hybrid system, both of which are based on the bipartate nature of yeast transcriptional activators. These protein complexes can be used to activate transcription when their two domains (DNA binding and transcriptional activator domains) are brought into proximity. In two-hybrid systems, this is mediated by the presence of interacting proteins that have been fused to one of the two domains on separate vectors--the so-called bait vector-- which contains the DNA-binding (LexA) domain, and the target vector, which contains the transcriptional activator, (B42) domain (S. Fields and O. Song, Nature, 340:245-247, 1989; C.T. Chien et al., Proceedings of ...