MS2 tagging

Techniques based upon the interaction of the MS2 bacteriophage coat protein with a stem loop structure from the phage genome. Used for biochemical purification of RNA-protein complexes and partnered to GFP for detection of RNA in living cells.^[1] More recently, the technique has been used to monitor the appearance of RNA in living cells, at the site of transcription, or simply by observing the changes in RNA number in the cytoplasm.^[2][3] This has revealed that transcription of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic genes occurs in a discontinuous fashion (see Transcriptional bursting) with bursts of transcription separated by irregular intervals.

Notes

1. ^ Bertrand, E., Chartrand, P., Schaefer, M., Shenoy, S. M., Singer, R. H. and Long, R. M. (1998). Localization of ASH1 mRNA particles in living yeast. Mol Cell 2, 437-45.
2. ^ Golding, I; Paulsson, J; Zawilski, SM; Cox, EC (2005). "Real-time kinetics of gene activity in individual bacteria". Cell 123 (6): 1025–36. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.031. PMID 16360033. 
3. ^ Chubb, JR; Trcek, T; Shenoy, SM; Singer, RH (2006). "Transcriptional pulsing of a developmental gene". Current biology : CB 16 (10): 1018–25. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.03.092. PMID 16713960.