Phage display

Phage display is a laboratory technique for the study of protein–protein, protein–peptide, and protein–DNA interactions that uses bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) to connect proteins with the genetic information that encodes them. In this technique, a gene encoding a protein of interest is inserted into a phage coat protein gene, causing the phage to "display" the protein on its outside while containing the gene for the protein on its inside, resulting in a connection between genotype and phenotype. These displaying phages can then be screened against other proteins, peptides or DNA sequences, in order to detect interaction between the displayed protein and those other molecules. In this way, large libraries of proteins can be screened and amplified in a process called in vitro selection, which is analogous to natural selection.

The most common bacteriophages used in phage display are M13 and fd filamentous phage, though T4,T7, and λ phage have also been used.

Phage display was first described by George P. Smith in 1985, when he demonstrated the display of peptides on filamentous phage by fusing the peptide of interest onto gene III of filamentous phage. A patent by George Pieczenik claiming priority from 1985 also describes the generation of phage display libraries. This technology was further developed and improved by groups at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Greg Winter and John McCafferty, The Scripps Research Institute with Lerner and Barbas and the German Cancer Research Center with Breitling and Dübel for display of proteins such as antibodies for therapeutic protein engineering.

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