SSINCC: Simple separation of interacting nucleoprotein complex components

Protein-DNA binding assays have been used in a variety of applications from fundamental studies regarding the binding process itself to serve as probes for the detection, quantification and separation of target analytes. Here we describe a novel method of analyzing and identifying intermolecular DNA interactions that allows for the simple separation of interacting nucleoprotein complex components (SSINCC), focusing specifically on DNA-DNA interactions using P1 plasmid active partition system nucleoprotein complexes as a model to demonstrate DNA sequence specificity and tolerance of composite factor complexity. Traditional and recent assays of proteinDNA interaction are summarized and compared with SSINC. Although SSINC is examined here employing P1 partition nucleoprotein complex as an example of DNA-DNA intermolecular association, universal applications of this methodology to nucleoprotein complex studies can be envisioned.