Transposon screen for PARylation targets

Poly (ADP-ribose)ylation is a dynamic protein modification that regulates multiple cellular processes. Here, we describe a system for identifying and characterizing PARylation events that exploits the ability of a PBZ (PAR-binding zinc finger) protein domain to bind PAR with high-affinity. By linking PBZ domains to bimolecular fluorescent complementation biosensors, we developed fluorescent PAR biosensors that allow the detection of temporal and spatial PARylation events in live cells. Exploiting transposon-mediated recombination, we integrated the PAR biosensor en masse into thousands of protein coding genes in living cells. Using these PAR-biosensor “tagged” cells in a genetic screen we carried out a large-scale identification of PARylation targets.