Background：

Protein tags are peptide sequences genetically grafted onto a recombinant protein. Often these tags are removable by chemical agents or by enzymatic means， such as proteolysis or intein splicing. Tags are attached to proteins for various purposes. Epitope tags are short peptide sequences which are chosen because high-affinity antibodies can be reliably produced in many different species. These are usually derived from viral genes， which explain their high immunoreactivity. Epitope tags include V5-tag， Myc-tag， HA-tag and NE-tag. These tags are particularly useful for western blotting， immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation experiments， although they also find use in antibody purification.