A three-hybrid system for detecting small ligand-protein receptor interactions

摘要

Small ligand-receptor interactions underlie many fundamental processes in biology and form the basis for pharmacological intervention of human diseases in medicine. We report herein a genetic system, named the yeast three- hybrid system, for detecting ligand-receptor interactions in vivo. This system is adapted from the yeast two-hybrid system with which a third synthetic hybrid ligand is combined. The feasibility of this system was demonstrated using as the hybrid ligand a heterodimer of covalently linked dexamethasone and FK506.