Figure 1.

A general schematic for ternary complexation mediated protein complementation is shown. mRNA encoding for split-luciferase fusions is used to initiate translation in a cell-free protein expression system. Specific recognition elements fused to the luciferase halves are used to reassemble a functional enzyme in the presence of a protein of interest leading to the generation of light. Translation, reassembly, and detection take place in the same solution.