Avidin-biotin interaction is one of the strongest non-covalent interactions in the nature. Avidin and its analogues have therefore been extensively utilized as probes and affinity matrices for a wide variety of applications in biochemical assays, diagnosis, affinity purification, and drug delivery. Recently, there has been a growing interest in exploring this non-covalent interaction in nanosca...

A combination of in situ and ex situ surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging experiments is used to characterize the differential electrostatic adsorption of proteins and synthetic polypeptides onto photopatterned monolayers at gold surfaces. The nonspecific electrostatic adsorption of proteins onto negatively charged self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) is found...

Biotinylation of erythrocytes (E) followed by avidin cross-linking at specific sites has been suggested as a novel means of drug delivery. Upon avidin cross-linking, biotinylated E become complement-activating and highly susceptible to complement lysis, thus bringing about release of entrapped drug. We set out to examine the mechanisms of this biotin-avidin-induced lytic susceptibility, focusin...

We assessed the immunohistochemical expression of c-erbB-2 transmembrane receptor in 15 primary lung carcinomas using the polyclonal antibody anti-human c-erbB-2 oncoprotein. Tissue fragments routinely processed (formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded) were then investigated for c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression using the Avidin-Biotin Complex staining method. Tumor cells showed positive c-erbB-2 e...

A pseudoknot-containing aptamer isolated from a pool of random sequence molecules has been shown previously to represent an optimal RNA solution to the problem of binding biotin. The affinity of this RNA molecule is nonetheless orders of magnitude weaker than that of its highly evolved protein analogs, avidin and streptavidin. To understand the structural basis for biotin binding and to compare...

The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is the most destructive insect pest of potato, Solanum tuberosum (L.), in North America. Avidin sequesters available biotin, thereby causing abnormal growth and development of insects. We expressed avidin in two potato lines: MSE149-5Y, a susceptible potato line, and ND5873-15, a line with S. chacoense-deri...

Exploiting self-assembly systems with biological building blocks is of significant interest in the fabrication of advanced biomaterials. We assessed the potential use of site-specific ligand labeling of protein building blocks in designing functional protein self-assemblies by combining site-specifically biotinylated bacterial alkaline phosphatase (as a bidentate or tetradentate ligand unit) an...

We have studied the transferability of atomic charges for proteins, fitted to the quantum mechanical electrostatic potential and extensively averaged over a set of structures sampled by molecular dynamics (MD) and over all residue of the same kind in the protein sequence (xAvESP). Previously, such charges were obtained for one single protein (avidin). In this study, we employ five additional pr...