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Fluorescent Tools to Analyze Peroxisome–Endoplasmic Reticulum Interactions in Mammalian Cells

Peroxisomes (POs) and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) cooperate extensively in lipid-related metabolic pathways, and the ER also provides phospholipids to enable the peroxisomal membrane to expand prior to division. Recently, we identified peroxisomal proteins, ACBD5 and ACBD4, and the ER protein vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein-B (VAPB) as tethering components, which physically interact to foster PO–ER associations at membrane contact sites. Overexpression or loss of these tether proteins alters the extent of PO–ER interactions, impacting on lipid exchange between these two compartments. To facilitate further studies into PO–ER associations at the level of membrane contact sites, their role, composition, and regulation, we have developed two fluorescence-based systems to monitor PO–ER interactions. We modified a proximity ligation assay and a split-fluorescence reporter system using split superfolder green fluorescent protein. Using the proximity ligation assay, we were able to measure the changes in PO–ER interactions while the split-fluorescence reporter was more limited and only allowed us to label PO–ER contacts. We show that both techniques can be useful additions to the toolkit of methods to study PO–ER associations and explore the relative merits of each.