GST assay system

In protein microarrays, capture molecules need to be immobilized in a functional state on a solid support. In principle, the format of the assay system does not limit the choice of appropriate surface chemistry. The same immobilization procedure can be applied for both planar and bead-based systems. Proteins can be immobilized on various surfaces (Fig. 1) (12). Two-dimensional polystyrene, polylysine, aminosilane, or aldehyde, epoxy- or thiol group-coated surfaces can be used to immobilize proteins via noncovalent or covalent attachment (13,14). Three-dimensional supports like nitrocellulose or hydrogel-coated surfaces enable the immobilization of the proteins in a network structure. Larger quantities of proteins can be immobilized and kept in a functional state. Affinity binding reagents such as protein A, G, and L can be used to immobilize antibodies (15), streptavidin is used for biotinylated proteins (16), chelate for His-tagged proteins (17, 18), anti-GST antibodies for GST fusion proteins (19), and oligonucleotides for cDNA or mRNA-protein hybrids (20). 

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