Luminescence resonance energy transfer in the cytoplasm of live Escherichia coli cells.

Luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) offers many advantages for accurate measurements of distances between specific sites in living cells, but progress in developing a methodology for implementing this technique has been limited. We report here the design, expression, and characterization of a test protein for development of a LRET methodology. The protein, which we call DAL, contains the following domains (from the N-terminus): Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), the third and fourth ankyrin repeats of p16(INK4a), a lanthanide-binding tag (LBT), and a hexahistidine tag.

Apolipophorin-III-like protein expressed in the antenna of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

Antennal proteins of the male fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, with the objective of identifying pheromone-binding proteins, which have not previously been found in ant antennae. The major low-molecular weight protein found in the male fire ant antenna was subjected to Edman degradation to determine the N-terminal amino acid sequence. Degenerate PCR primers based on this sequence were used to obtain a cDNA sequence corresponding to the full-length protein sequence.