We have used fluorescent fusion proteins stably expressed in HEK cells to detect directly the interaction between the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase (SERCA) and phospholamban (PLB) in living cells, in order to design PLB mutants for gene therapy. Ca2+ cycling in muscle cells depends strongly on SERCA. Heart failure (HF), which contributes to 12% of US deaths, typically exhibits decreased SERCA activity, and several potential therapies for HF aim to increase SERCA activity. We are investigating the use of LOF-PLB mutants (PLBM) as gene therapy vectors to increase SERCA activity. Active SERCA1a and WT-PLB, tagged at their N termini with fluorescent proteins (CFP and YFP), were coexpressed in stable HER cell lines, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was used to detect their interaction directly. Phosphorylation of PLB, induced by forskolin, caused an increase in FRET from CFP-SERCA to YFP-PLB, indicating that SERCA inhibition can be relieved without dissociation of the complex. This suggests that a LOF mutant might bind to SERCA with sufficient affinity to complete effectively with WT-PLB, thus relieving SERCA inhibition. Therefore, we transiently expressed a series of PLBM in the CFP-SERCA/YFP-PLB cell line, and found decreased FRET, implying competition between PLBM and WT-PLB for binding to SERCA. These results establish this FRET assay as a rapid and quantitative means of screening PLBM for optimization of gene therapy to activate SERCA, as needed for gene therapy in HF. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.