FIG. 1.

Protein-protein interactions among the spore coat proteins. The images represent the summary of results obtained from the yeast two-hybrid analysis. Panel A shows yeast MaV203 cells cotransformed with multiple bait-target combinations of plasmids as specified and analyzed for gene reporter activity by growth on selection media as described in Materials and Methods. E, CotE; V, CotV; W, CotW; X, CotX; Y, CotY; Z, CotZ. Panel B shows the self-activation test. In the first line, the pDBleu plasmid was cotransformed with the yeast target plasmids, containing the indicated Cot protein fused with the Gal4 activation domain. Though the CotE bait is a weak self-activator, when coexpressed with the CotE target, the activation of reporter genes is significantly enhanced. In the second line, the pEXP-AD502 plasmid was cotransformed with bait plasmids containing the Cot protein fused with the Gal4 binding domain. The control strain carries the pDBleu and pEXP-AD502 plasmids. CS, negative control strain.