Detection of Protein-Protein Interaction Within an RNA-Protein Complex Via Unnatural-Amino-Acid-Mediated Photochemical Crosslinking.

Although DExD/H-box proteins are known to unwind RNA duplexes and modulate RNA structures in vitro, it is highly plausible that, in vivo, some may function to remodel RNA-protein complexes. Precisely how the latter is achieved remains a mystery. We investigated this critical issue by using yeast Prp28p, an evolutionarily conserved DExD/H-box splicing factor, as a model system. To probe how Prp28p interacts with spliceosome, we strategically placed p-benzoyl-phenylalanine (BPA), a photoactivatable unnatural amino acid, along the body of Prp28p in vivo. Extracts prepared from these engineered strains were then used to assemble in vitro splicing reactions for BPA-mediated protein-protein crosslinkings. This enabled us, for the first time, to "capture" Prp28p in action. This approach may be applicable to studying the roles of other DExD/H-box proteins functioning in diverse RNA-related pathways, as well as to investigating protein-protein contacts within an RNA-protein complex.