| abstract |
A method of stable noncovalent display of proteins, peptides, or compounds covalently linked to proteins or peptides on the surface of Gram-positive bacteria provides advantages over phage display. One embodiment of the present invention comprises a method for noncovalent protein targeting, comprising the steps of: (1) cloning a nucleic acid segment encoding a chimeric protein into a Gram-positive bacterium to generate a cloned chimeric protein including therein a carboxyl-terminal cell-wall targeting signal (2) growing the bacterium into which the nucleic acid segment has been cloned to express the chimeric protein to generate a chimeric protein including therein a carboxyl-terminal cell-wall targeting signal; and (3) binding the expressed chimeric protein noncovalently and stably to the cell-wall via the carboxyl-terminal cell-wall targeting signal so that the chimeric protein is displayed on the surface on the Gram-positive bacterium in such a way that the protein is accessible to a ligand. Alternatively, the chimeric protein can be produced by expression in another expression system and contacted with the Gram-positive bacterium. |