PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HUMAN NUCLEAR LAMINS EXPRESSED IN YEAST

Protein-protein interactions between the nuclear lamins are responsibl e for the assembly of the nuclear lamina, a meshwork of intermediate f ilaments associated with the nuclear envelope inner membrane. We have used the yeast two-hybrid system to examine the interactions between t he predominant human nuclear lamins expressed as GAL4 fusion proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Lamin A, prelamin A, lamin B1, and liamin C were able to form homodimers as well as heterodimers. Analysis of t he different structural domains of lamin B1 demonstrated that the seco nd half of coil 2 of the rod domain was necessary for the formation of the most stable homodimers. The results show that the yeast two-hybri d system can be used to study the interactions between structural prot eins and their domains. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.