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How To Bio Tiny Late
How To Bio Tiny Late
How to Biotinylate with Reprodicible Results
Introduction • Binding assays almost always under‐
represent the number of biotin mole‐
The Biotin‐Streptavidin system continues to be cules actually attached to the protein
used in many protein‐based biological research
applications including; ELISAs, immunoprecipita‐ How can these problems be solved?
tion, Westen blotting, general immobilization and
1) Control the amount of biotin on your
detection, and many other biological procedures.
protein for assay optimization
Although pre‐biotinylated proteins are often avail‐
able from commercial sources, there are many in‐
In order to avoid over modification which
stances when specialized proteins are not available
often causes precipitation and or greatly
in this form; thereby requiring the researcher to
reduces activity you should select a di‐
biotinylate their own protein.
rectly traceable biotinylation kit. Such a
However, there are many common problems and kit would allow you to quickly determine
other pitfalls associated with standard biotinyla‐ the amount of biotin incorporated into a
tion procedures, for example; protein before every assay. Such tracea‐
ble biotinylation would enable you to
• A researcher is often uncertain a
quickly determine the number of biotin
reaction worked properly or even to
molecules present on the protein and
what degree
• Over‐biotinylation often causes preci‐ thus allow a minimal amount of biotin‐
pitation and loss of protein just enough to successfully complete an
• Over‐biotinylation often reduces pro‐ assay without disrupting activity or func‐
tein activity and/or function tion. A fast, reliable and easy to use me‐
thod for determining the number of
For this reason, streptavidin‐binding assays were biotins attached to a protein would elimi‐
developed and used to quantify the degree of
nate the desire to move on blindly to the
protein biotinylation. For example, two such as‐
says include the HABA and a FluoroReporterTM next step of an often complicated down‐
streptavidin binding assay. However, streptavidin stream assay.
binding assays suffer from numerous short‐
comings: 2) Biotin quantification without expensive
equipment and additional costly assays.
• High cost (laborious and time‐
consuming)
Many of the current methods for quanti‐
• Require expensive, often unavailable
equipment (e.g. fluorimeter) fying biotin on proteins require a second‐
• Require external protein calibration ary assay such as the HABA or the
curve FluorReporterTM (Invitrogen) assay. The
• Binding assays are destructive in na‐ former assay is a destructive assay that is
ture and consume significant quanti‐ less sensitive and can consume up to 75
ties of often precious protein ug of the labeled protein in the assay. It
also requires an external streptavidin‐
www.solulink.com © 2008 SoluLinK, Inc.
Solulink How to Biotinylate with Reproducible Results – November 2008
based calibration curve. The latter, Fluo‐ Although there are several products on the mar‐
roReporterTM assay, although more sensi‐ ket to address one or two of the solutions above,
tive than the HABA assay, requires a SoluLink offers the only comprehensive solution
spectrofluorimeter or a fluorescent plate to all these problems in a single reagent. We also
reader. This assay also requires an exter‐ provide easy to use automated calculators that
nal calibration curve. The destructive na‐ avoid any need to manually calculate how much
ture of the assays along with increased reagent to use or time consuming calculations.
labor cost and time diminish the general SoluLinK also offers one‐on‐one technical support
implementation of these assays. Any for any biotinylation project and/or other conju‐
method for circumventing these limita‐ gation support services. Solving all these prob‐
tions could be quite beneficial to any lems with the use of a single reagent can help you
small company or research lab that wor‐ achieve your ultimate research goals while saving
ries about the cost of such ancillary rea‐ you time, money, protein, and other valuable re‐
gents and assays. sources while providing valuable process informa‐
tion.
3) Reproduce your results effectively.
Control the amount of biotin on the protein
Quick and accurate quantification of the
number of biotins incorporated in a pro‐ In order to address all of the common biotinyla‐
tein will allow you to quantify your reac‐ tion problems, Solulink has developed Chroma‐
tions each time you biotinylate. This Link Biotin (Figure 1). ChromaLink Biotin is a
provides confidence in the quality of the water‐soluble biotin labeling reagent with built‐in
assay reagents being used. It also permits signal traceability that allows you to track and
quantitative comparison to previous bio‐ rapidly calculate the exact number of biotins at‐
tinylation reactions. Quantifying the bio‐ tached to a protein or antibody. The procedure
tin MSR (biotin molar substitution ratio) for labeling with ChromaLink Biotin is identical to
after labeling would allow you move on to biotinylating with any other NHS‐based biotinyla‐
the next step of a process or assay with tion reagent. The key to solving the common
much greater confidence. problems previously discussed revolve around the
unique, UV‐traceable chromophore embedded
4) Choose a traceable biotin reagent with a
“built‐in” signaling system.
When you choose the right biotin rea‐
gent, you will ensure tracking and identi‐
fication of the entire labeling process,
always ‘dialing in’ and quantifying the
proper degree of biotin incorporation be‐
fore every assay or process.
Current biotinylation products on the market that
can help solve these problems:
Email: solulink@solulink.com 2
Solulink How to Biotinylate with Reproducible Results – November 2008
within the linker itself. Following buffer exchange Avoid Additional Costly Assays
of the labeling reaction, the biotinylated protein is In order to illustrate how the HABA assay (Pierce
simply analyzed by measuring the A280 and A354 Chemical Co., Rockford, IL) often under reports the
of the conjugate. Inserting the absorbance values number of incorporated biotins versus the Chro‐
into a ChromaLink Biotin calculator (provided) maLink Biotin method, both assays for biotin incor‐
automatically calculates the final protein concen‐ poration were compared and results summarized in
tration and the number of biotins incorporated! Table 1. Data in the table was generated by bioti‐
Biotin quantification using a simple spectropho‐ nylating (500 ul @ 5 mg/ml) of a bovine IgG sample
tometer and no other costly reagents at 5, 10, and 15 mole equivalents using ChromaLink
Biotin.
Representative UV absorbance spectra of a biotiny‐
lated antibody using ChromaLink Biotin can be As seen from the results, HABA measurements
used to illustrate how easy it is to quantify biotin yield lower estimates of biotin incorporation result‐
incorporation by a simple scan of the biotinylated ing in significant differences between the two as‐
sample (Figure 2). Data can be acquired on any says. For example, the biotin molar substitution
conventional or NanoDropTM spectrophotometer ratio calculated using the HABA dye‐binding assay
is generally 1/3 the value obtained with the Chro‐
and the sample recovered after analysis (non‐
destructive). maLink method. The HABA dye‐binding assay gen‐
erally underestimates the true biotin molar
substitution ratio because it measures the number
of moles of biotin available for binding to strepta‐
vidin and not the absolute number of biotin mole‐
cules attached to the antibody surface. For
example, two biotin molecules in close proximity to
each other are likely to bind to a single streptavidin
Figure 2: Overlaid UV absorbtion spectra of buffer molecule.
exchanged bovine lgG biotinylated using ChromaLinkTM
Biotin at 5x, 10x and 15x equivalents of reagent over
protein.
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Solulink How to Biotinylate with Reproducible Results – November 2008
Label Reproducibility was then incubated with streptavidin‐HRP @ 1
µg/ml for 60 minutes. After washes, TMB substrate
Triplicate biotinylation reactions were set‐up using
(3,3’,5,5’‐ tetramethylbenzidine) was added for 20
bovine IgG @ 5 mg/ml and 6 equivalents of
minutes. Signals were measured on a conventional
ChromaLink Biotin reagent. After purification, each
plate reader @ 650 nm. Direct ELISA dose response
sample was scanned using a NanoDropTM spectro‐
curves were plotted as illustrated below
photometer (Figure 3), and the resultant spectra
overlaid. As clearly demonstrated, results are easy Results: Signal/noise increased approximately 2.9‐
to confirm and reproduce, time after time. fold (linear portion of the curve) as the biotin MSR
increased from 1.3 to 6.1 as illustrated in Figure 4.
Background controls were constant across the vari‐
ous MSRs (data not shown).
To further illustrate the relationship between sig‐
nal/noise and MSR for this antibody/antigen pair,
plots were generated at a single fixed antigen con‐
centration (e.g.2 ng/well) across a range of molar
substitution ratios (Figure 5).
Results: Measured signal/noise increases almost
Figure 3. Overlaid spectra confirming reproducibility of antibo‐ 2.9‐fold as the MSR goes from 1.3 to 6.1. Note the
dy biotinylation (triplicates).
slight reduction in signal as the MSR goes beyond
Make Assay Optimization Simple 6.1 probably due to over‐modification of the anti‐
body.
Direct ELISA
Conclusion: You have more important things to
A goat anti‐bovine IgG antibody was biotinylated
do than worry about biotinylating a protein.
using ChromaLinkTM Biotin to obtain a series of dif‐ ChromaLink Biotin allows you to biotinylate pro‐
ferent molar substitution ratios. The biotinylated teins quickly and easily and then confirm the
antibodies were then used to detect immobilized number of biotins incorporated so you can pro‐
antigen (bovine IgG) in a standard ELISA procedure. ceed with confidence!!
Purified bovine IgG was immobilized (2‐fold dilu‐
Recommended Products:
tion series) (0.5 ‐ 5,000 ng/ml). After immobiliza‐
[B‐9007‐105K] ChromaLinkTM Biotin Labeling Kit
tion (4 hr @ RT), wells were blocked with 1% [B‐9007‐105K] ChromaLinkTM One‐Shot Kit
casein/PBS and subsequently washed. The plate [B‐1007‐110] ChromaLinkTM Labeling Reagent
Email: solulink@solulink.com 4
Solulink How to Biotinylate with Reproducible Results – November 2008
Optical Density (650 nm)
MSR = 6.1 MSR = 3.1
MSR = 6.1
MSR = 3.1
MSR = 1.3
MSR = 1.3
1 10 100 1000 10000
Concentration
(ng/ml)
Figure 4. Direct ELISA response curves illustrating the relationship between biotin molar substitution ratio and
direct ELISA signals @ 650 nm for an anti‐bovine IgG biotin conjugate.
Figure 5. Background corrected direct ELISA signals at a fixed quantity of immobilized antigen (i.e. 2 ng per well) vs.
MSR. Note the gradual increase in S/N (~ 2.9‐fold) as the MSR increases from 1.3 to 6.1.
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