Arabidopsis protein microarrays for the high-throughput identification of protein-protein interactions.

Protein microarray technology has emerged as a powerful new approach for the study of thousands of proteins simultaneously. Protein microarrays have been used for a wide variety of applications for the human and yeast systems. In a recent study, we demonstrated that Arabidopsis functional protein microarrays can be generated and employed to characterize the function of plant proteins. The arrayed proteins were produced using an optimized large-scale plant-based expression system. In a proof-of concept study, 173 known and novel potential substrates of calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like proteins (CML) were identified in an unbiased and high-throughput manner. The information documented here on novel potential CaM targets provides new testable hypotheses in the area of CaM/Ca(2+)-regulated processes and represents a resource of functional information for the scientific community.