Arabidopsis thaliana seeds without functional SEED MATURATION PROTEIN1 (SMP1), a boiling soluble protein predicted to be of intrinsic disorder, presumed to be a LATE EMBRYOGENESIS ABUNDANT (LEA) family protein based on sequence homology, do not enter secondary dormancy after 3 days at 40 °C. We hypothesized that SMP1 may protect a heat labile protein involved in the promotion of secondary dorma...

Short peptides are capable of tight and specific binding to physiological or fortuitous receptors on the surface of cells. These peptides can be used to tag or capture target cells in an assortment of detector platforms. As part of an effort to identify small-molecule ligands for advanced detectors for spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, we are screening (or biopanning...

Screening randomly mutagenized proteins displayed on a phage surface by biopanning is a powerful strategy to obtain evolved clones with improved properties such as higher stability and functionality. We utilized this method to overcome the problem that functional single-chain antibodies against active gibberellins, a class of plant hormones, can not be prepared by some of the conventional metho...

The complex hide-and-seek game between HIV-1 and the host immune system has impaired the development of an efficient vaccine. In addition, the high variability of the virus impedes the long-term control of viral replication by small antiviral drugs. For more than 20 years, phage display technology has been intensively used in the field of HIV-1 to explore the epitope landscape recognized by mon...

Streptavidin is sometimes used as the intended target to screen phage-displayed combinatorial peptide libraries for streptavidin-binding peptides (SBPs). More often in the biopanning system, however, streptavidin is just a commonly used anchoring molecule that can efficiently capture the biotinylated target. In this case, SBPs creeping into the biopanning results are not desired binders but tar...

Phage display has been utilized for making recombinant antibody fragments (Fab or single chain Fv) of human, mouse, or other origins. After construction of an antibody combinatorial library, antigen-specific recombinant antibody fragments can be easily isolated by biopanning of the phage library displaying antibody fragment fused with viral coat protein III against antigen proteins, antigen-exp...