Epitope Tags

The DYKDDDDK Epitope Tag antibody was raised against a short, artificial sequence that is widely and commonly used as a protein fusion tag. It is pervasively present in a vast amount of scientific studies, and is a very powerful investigative research tool for applications such as immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry.

The 6-His antibody recognizes a very short amino acid sequence epitope that is widely and commonly used as a protein fusion tag, often at the N- or C-terminus of protein constructs. It is a very powerful investigative research toolfor applications such as immunochemistry, protein purification, ELISA purification, and protein localization.

GFP (green florescent protein), originally discovered in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, (1) is one of the most extensively investigated and exploited proteins in the area of life sciences. GFP is well known for its proficiency emit fluorescence and has proven itself as an indicating marker of gene expression and protein target in intact cells and organisms.

The luciferase reporter is a valuable tool for research into physiology and disease. Light emitted from luciferase enables the monitoring of xenografted tumors, specific cell types, gene expression and pathogens within live animals over time using bioluminescence imaging (BLI) technology. Further detail can be revealed through the use of luciferase antibodies.

Recombinant DNA technology allows researchers to fuse epitope tags to their protein of interest and then identify that protein using tag specific antibodies. The Myc Tag can be used to purify tagged proteins by affinity chromatography or detect them by immnoflorescence, immunoprecipitation and by Western blotting assays.

Epitope tagging is a procedure that inserts a short amino acid sequence into a protein within an expression vector via genetic engineering. Antibodies that recognize the tag can then be used to detect the protein when no antibody to the target protein exists or when the target protein shows low immunogenicity.  Such tags can be inserted at the C-terminus, N-terminus or even within the protein itself.  Terminal insertion is preferred as internal tags may alter protein function or become buried within the tertiary structure of the protein.

Novus Biologicals is one of the leading antibody suppliers of high affinity human epitope tag reagents, such as the HA tag antibody. Widely used in Western blot, ELISA and Immunohistochemistry assays, they offer a useful and reliable method for detecting, analyzing and purifying proteins from a wide range of species.

We at Novus Biologicals have a large antibody catalog targeted to epitope tags. They include C-Myc, GFP, HA, DYKDDDDK, and V5 Tag antibody reagents. The V5 tag antibody recognizes the artificially engineered V5 epitope, which is formed of amino acid residues 95-108 of the simian virus 5 RNA polymerase alpha subunit.