Protocols for detection and purification of proteins tagged with a particular epitope, the FLAG tag, although the same general approach can be applied to other epitope tags. The protocols employ the anti-FLAG M2 antibody to detect and purify FLAG-tagged proteins. The methods presented are immunoprecipitation of FLAG fusion proteins from cells using an anti-FLAG M2 affinity gel, detection of FLAG fusion proteins by western blotting, and purification of FLAG fusion proteins by anti-FLAG. - [Read Epitope Tagging of Recombinant Proteins Protocol]
Protein complexes can be isolated by several different approaches. For example, a protein can be tagged with an epitope such as Flag or TAP and then overexpressed in a target cell, allowing the interacting proteins to be purified. Similarly, epitope tags can be homologously recombined into the endogenous locus ("knocked-in"), allowing protein complexes containing the tagged proteins to be isolated at their natural expression level. - [Read Overview of Affinity Purification in Combination with Mass Spectrometry Protocol]
Protocol describes the use of FLAG-epitope-tagged proteins for both small-scale analysis and large-scale coimmunoprecipitation of interacting proteins. When examining protein interactions, it is sometimes possible to immunoprecipitate an endogenous protein X directly, without using an epitope tag, if antibodies are available. The advantage of examining interactions of endogenously expressed proteins is that these are likely to be physiological and less likely to be an artifact of overexpression. - [Read Using FLAG Epitope-Tagged Proteins for Coimmunoprecipitation of Interacting Proteins Protocol]