Baculovirus-encoded protein expression for epigenomic profiling in drosophila cells

Abstract

The expression and genome-wide mapping of epitope-tagged DN A- and chromatin-binding proteins in cultured cells has become a powerful strategy for epigenome characterization, especially in Drosophila, where cell lines derived from numerous tissues are now available. However this strategy relies on establishing transfected cell lines, which is time consuming and introduces variability. Here we show that baculovirus-encoded proteins can be efficiently produced following infection of Drosophila cell lines of different types. Using chromatin affinity purification, we show that epitopetagged proteins produced in baculovirus-infected cells provide genome-wide profiles of the histone variant H2Av that are comparable to those produced by plasmid-transfected cells. The ability to express multiple epitope-tagged proteins for epigenome analysis from a single culture, and to do this in a variety of Drosophila cell lines, significantly extends the range of epigenome analysis. © 2010 Landes Bioscience.