Protein Complex Purification by Affinity Capture

Abstract

Affinity capture has become a powerful technique for consistently purifying endogenous protein complexes, facilitating biochemical and biophysical assays on otherwise inaccessible biological assemblies, and enabling broader interactomic exploration. For this procedure, cells are broken and their contents separated and extracted into a solvent, permitting access to target macromolecular complexes thus released in solution. The complexes are specifically enriched from the extract onto a solid medium coupled with an affinity reagent-usually an antibody-that recognizes the target either directly or through an appended affinity tag, allowing subsequent characterization of the complex. Here, we discuss approaches and considerations for purifying endogenous yeast protein complexes by affinity capture.