BACTH

Bacterial Adenylate Cyclase-based two hybrid system

Allows the detection of in vivo protein-protein interactions by restoring the activity of the Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase in E. coli reporter strains.

Active adenylate cyclase results in the expression of the lacZ gene which is detected by blue colonies on plates containing X-Gal.

see a scheme of the principle: picture

The system consists of four plasmids and one E. coli strain (BTH101)

1. pKT25: C-terminal fusion of the target protein 1 to the T25 fragment of adenylate cyclase
2. pKT25-N: N-terminal fusion of the target protein 1 to the T25 fragment of adenylate cyclase
3. pUT18: N-terminal fusion of the target protein 1 to the T18 fragment of adenylate cyclase
4. pUT18C: C-terminal fusion of the target protein 1 to the T18 fragment of adenylate cyclase

E. coli BTH101 is a cya mutant that requires plasmid-derived adenylate cyclase activity for the activation of the lac operon.

References:

1. Karimova, G., Fayolle, C., Gmira, S., Ullmann, A., Leclerc, C., and Ladant, D. (1998) Charge-dependent translocation of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin into eukaryotic cells: implication for the in vivo delivery of CD8(+) T cell epitopes into antigen-presenting cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95, 12532-12537.
2. Claessen, D., Emmins, R., Hamoen, L. W., Daniel, R. A., Errington, J., and Edwards, D. H. (2008) Control of the cell elongation-division cycle by shuttling of PBP1 protein in Bacillus subtilis. Mol Microbiol 68, 1029-1046.

The BACTH is commercially available from EUROMEDEX