pcDNA–MERS-CoV–S1–V5–transfected BEAS2B cells were
immunoprecipitated with mAb against V5 (ThermoFisher Scientific, R96025) and
Sepharose A/G beads (ThermoFisher Scientific). In parallel, the membrane
proteins from the BEAS2B cells were immunoprecipitated with purified
MERS-CoV–S1–FLAG protein, anti-FLAG M2 antibody (Sigma, F1804),
and Sepharose A/G beads (ThermoFisher Scientific). Pulled down proteins reactive
to anti-V5 beads were washed and incubated with 0.1
and those reactive to anti-FLAG M2 beads were eluted in 3× FLAG peptide
solution (Sigma, 150 ng/μl final concentration). Eluted samples were
spin-dialyzed in Amicon spin column with 10-kDa cutoff (Millipore) and separated
by SDS-PAGE, stained with SilverQuest kit (ThermoFisher Scientific). The gel
fragment was excised for LC-MS/MS analysis carried out in the Center for Genomic
Sciences, University of Hong Kong. MS/MS data were searched against all
mammalian protein databases in NCBI and Swiss-Prot. The protein was identified
as GRP78 with significant hits over different domains of the sequence.