In vivo identification of plant protein complexes using IP-MS/MS

Abstract

Individual proteins often function as part of a protein complex. The identification of interacting proteins is therefore vital to understand the biological role and function of the studied protein. Here we describe a method for the in vivo identification of nuclear, cytoplasmic, and membrane-associated protein complexes from plant tissues using a strategy of immunoprecipitation followed by tandem mass spectrometry. By performing quantitative mass spectrometry measurements on biological triplicates, relative abundance of proteins in GFP-tagged complexes compared to background controls can be statistically evaluated to identify high-confidence interactors. We detail the entire workflow of this approach.