An electrophoretic mobility shift assay for the identification and kinetic analysis of acetyl transferase inhibitors

Abstract Histone acetyl transferases are important regulators of cellular homeostasis. This study describes a sensitive acetyl transferase electrophoretic mobility shift assay applicable both for kinetic analysis of acetyl transferase inhibitors and for high-throughput testing. Application of the assay for human GCN5L2 enabled dissection of inhibitor competition with respect to acetyl coenzyme A. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the assay can detect time-dependent inhibition of human GCN5L2 by reactive inhibitors.