AP-TAG™ Receptor/Ligand Dectection and Cloning Products

AP-TAG technology (US patents 5,554,499 and 5,801,000; ), invented by Drs. J. Flanagan and P. Leder at Harvard Medical School, has revolutionized the way cell surface receptors and ligands are detected and cloned. GenHunter is proud to be the exclusive licensee of this powerful method in the reagent business. See sublicensing information on the preceding page for further details. The essence of this invention is to allow a cDNA sequence encoding any secreted polypeptide ligand or extracellular domain of a receptor to be in-frame fused to human placental secreted alkaline phosphatase (AP) in pAPtag cloning vectors. The resulting ligand-AP fusion protein, designated AP-body, when expressed in 293T Cells, can be secreted at high levels into the culture medium and thus easily detected by either the AP activity assay or Western blot analysis using antibody against AP. The Ligand-AP or soluble receptor-AP fusion proteins thus can serve as affinity agents much like antibodies, which allow the most convenient, safe, and sensitive detection and cloning of their corresponding cell surface receptors or ligands. Unlike the conventional radioactive 125I labeling method, AP-TAG is safe and does not require ligand/soluble receptor purification.

Since its invention, many important cell surface receptors and ligands have been cloned by AP-TAG technology including receptors for leptin , Semaphorin III and ligands for Kit, Mek4 and Sek receptor tyrosine kinases.

GenHunter is extremely pleased to be able to add this innovative method into our product line as a powerful tool for applications downstream of differential display (DD). If you are working with a secreted protein or cell surface molecule cloned by DD or other methods, AP-TAG technology may allow you to functionally characterize these genes further.

GenHunter Corp., 624 Grassmere Park Drive, Suite 17, Nashville, TN 37211. Tel: 615-833-0665; Fax: 615-832-9461.