Patent ID: 7585635

Claim:
A method of detecting and analyzing protein interactions in a cell, which comprises the steps: a) expressing in the cell a1) a first fusion protein comprising a first interaction partner and a part of the 27 kDa NIa protease of tobacco etch virus, wherein the part of the NIa protease alone does not have proteolytic activity, and a2) a second fusion protein comprising a second interaction partner and another part of said NIa protease, wherein said another part of the NIa protease alone does not have proteolytic activity, and a3) a reporter protein, whose reporter activity can be activated or inactivated by proteolysis, b) reconstituting the functional NIa protease activity via interaction of said first and second interaction partners, c) detecting and analyzing activation of the proteolysis-activatable or inactivation of the proteolysis-inactivatable reporter protein by the reconstituted functional NIa protease of step b), wherein said reporter protein is selected from the group consisting of recombinases, transcription activators, fluorescent proteins, luciferases, beta-galactosidase, alkaline phosphatases, beta-lactamase, proteins and enzymes conferring resistance to cytotoxic substances or minimal media, cytotoxic or pro-apoptotic proteins, and proteins altering the growth or morphology of the cell in which they are expressed; and wherein the part of the NIa protease in a1) and the part of the NIa protease in a2) are generated by dividing the functional NIa protease at a position between amino acids 60 and 80, wherein the NIa protease comprises an amino acid sequence having a catalytic triade comprising histidine at position 46, aspartate at position 81 and cysteine at position 151.