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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Specialized epitope tags are widely used for detecting, manipulating or purifying proteins, but often their versatility is limited. Here, we introduce the ALFA-tag, a rationally designed epitope tag that serves a remarkably broad spectrum of applications in life sciences while outperforming established tags like the HA-, FLAG(R)- or myc-tag. The ALFA-tag forms a small and stable alpha-helix that is functional irrespective of its position on the target protein in prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts. We characterize a nanobody (NbALFA) binding ALFA-tagged proteins from native or fixed specimen with low picomolar affinity. It is ideally suited for super-resolution microscopy, immunoprecipitations and Western blotting, and also allows in vivo detection of proteins. We show the crystal structure of the complex that enabled us to design a nanobody mutant (NbALFA(PE)) that permits efficient one-step purifications of native ALFA-tagged proteins, complexes and even entire living cells using peptide elution under physiological conditions.

The ALFA-tag is a highly versatile tool for nanobody-based bioscience applications.,Gotzke H, Kilisch M, Martinez-Carranza M, Sograte-Idrissi S, Rajavel A, Schlichthaerle T, Engels N, Jungmann R, Stenmark P, Opazo F, Frey S Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 27;10(1):4403. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12301-7. PMID:31562305^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.