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Engineered small metal-binding protein tag improves the production of recombinant human growth hormone in the periplasm of Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Fusion proteins play an important role in the production of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. They are mostly used for cytoplasmic expression since they can be designed to increase the solubility of the target protein, which then can be easily purified via affinity chromatography. In contrast, fusion proteins are not usually included in construct designs for periplasmic production. Instead, a signal sequence is inserted for protein transport into the periplasm and a C-terminal his-tag added for subsequent purification. Our research group has proposed the small metal-binding protein (SmbP) isolated from the periplasm of Nitrosomonas europaea as a new fusion protein to express recombinant proteins in the cytoplasm or periplasm of E. coli. SmbP also allows purification via immobilized metal affinity chromatography using Ni(II) ions. Recently, we have optimized the periplasmic production of proteins tagged with SmbP by exchanging its native signal peptide with one taken from pectate lyase B (PelB), substantially increasing the amount of protein produced. In this work, we have expressed and purified soluble bioactive human growth hormone (hGH) tagged with PelB-SmbP and obtained the highest periplasmic production reported for this protein so far. Its activity, tested on Nb2-11 cells, was equivalent to commercial growth hormone at 50 ng·mL-1 . Therefore, we strongly recommend the use of PelB-SmbP as a protein tag for the expression and purification of hGH or other possible target proteins in the periplasm of E. coli.

SUBMITTER: Perez-Perez DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7137794 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Engineered small metal-binding protein tag improves the production of recombinant human growth hormone in the periplasm of Escherichia coli.

Perez-Perez David A DA Pioquinto-Avila Elizeth E Arredondo-Espinoza Eder E Morones-Ramirez Jose Ruben JR Balderas-Renteria Isaias I Zarate Xristo X

FEBS open bio 20200309 4

Fusion proteins play an important role in the production of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. They are mostly used for cytoplasmic expression since they can be designed to increase the solubility of the target protein, which then can be easily purified via affinity chromatography. In contrast, fusion proteins are not usually included in construct designs for periplasmic production. Instead, a signal sequence is inserted for protein transport into the periplasm and a C-terminal his-tag ad ...[more]

PMID: 32049439

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Project description:In Escherichia coli, many recombinant proteins are produced in the periplasm. To direct these proteins to this compartment, they are equipped with an N-terminal signal sequence so that they can traverse the cytoplasmic membrane via the protein-conducting Sec translocon. Recently, using the single-chain variable antibody fragment BL1, we have shown that harmonizing the target gene expression intensity with the Sec translocon capacity can be used to improve the production yields of a recombinant protein in the periplasm. Here, we have studied the consequences of improving the production of BL1 in the periplasm by using a proteomics approach. When the target gene expression intensity is not harmonized with the Sec translocon capacity, the impaired translocation of secretory proteins, protein misfolding/aggregation in the cytoplasm, and an inefficient energy metabolism result in poor growth and low protein production yields. The harmonization of the target gene expression intensity with the Sec translocon capacity results in normal growth, enhanced protein production yields, and, surprisingly, a composition of the proteome that is-besides the produced target-the same as that of cells with an empty expression vector. Thus, the single-chain variable antibody fragment BL1 can be efficiently produced in the periplasm without causing any notable detrimental effects to the production host. Finally, we show that under the optimized conditions, a small fraction of the target protein is released into the extracellular milieu via outer membrane vesicles. We envisage that our observations can be used to design strategies to further improve the production of secretory recombinant proteins in E. coliIMPORTANCE The bacterium Escherichia coli is widely used to produce recombinant proteins. Usually, trial-and-error-based screening approaches are used to identify conditions that lead to high recombinant protein production yields. Here, for the production of an antibody fragment in the periplasm of E. coli, we show that an optimization of its production is accompanied by the alleviation of stress. This indicates that the monitoring of stress responses could be used to facilitate enhanced recombinant protein production yields.

Project description:BackgroundPeptides have recently become attractive for therapeutic applications. However, efficient production of medium- to large-sized peptides (30-100 amino acids [aa]) remains challenging both by recombinant and chemical synthesis. We previously reported the formation of active enzyme aggregates in Escherichia coli cells induced by the short β-structured peptide ELK16 (LELELKLKLELELKLK) and developed a streamlined protein expression and purification approach. In this approach, a cleavable self-aggregating tag (cSAT) consisting of an intein molecule and ELK16 was used to release the recombinant peptides with reasonable purity from active aggregates.ResultsIn this work, we extended the cSAT approach to a generalized expression and purification solution for a set of medium- to large-sized peptides with important therapeutic uses, including human glucagon-like peptide 1 (31 aa), B-type natriuretic peptide (32 aa), exendin 4 (39 aa), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 (also known as RANTES, 66 aa), stromal cell-derived factor 1α (67 aa), insulin-like growth factor 1 (70 aa), and leptin (146 aa). After intein-mediated cleavage, the soluble peptides were released directly into the supernatant while insoluble peptides could be refolded and purified by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Additionally, an N-terminal thioredoxin tag was added upstream of the target peptides, which can be removed by enterokinase cleavage, generating native N-terminus for target peptides. Final yields of the peptides ranged from 0.1 to 1.8 μg/mg wet cell weight at laboratory scale.ConclusionsThe approach described in this study provides a fast and efficient route to express and purify peptides that are difficult or expensive to produce by chemical synthesis or by ordinary recombinant methods. It is particularly well suited for large peptides, peptides likely to be degraded, and peptides that have toxic effects on the host. It can greatly reduce the cost and time of downstream processing, and thus may be useful for both industrial manufacture and laboratory applications.

Project description:Many recombinant proteins that are produced in Escherichia coli have to be targeted to the periplasm to be functional. N-terminal signal peptides can be used to direct recombinant proteins to the membrane-embedded Sec translocon, a multiprotein complex that translocates proteins across the membrane into the periplasm. We have recently shown that the cotranslational targeting of the single-chain variable antibody fragment BL1 saturates the capacity of the Sec translocon leading to impaired translocation of secretory proteins and protein misfolding/aggregation in the cytoplasm. In turn, protein production yields and biomass formation were low. Here, we study the consequences of targeting BL1 posttranslationally to the Sec translocon. Notably, the posttranslational targeting of BL1 does not saturate the Sec translocon capacity, and both biomass formation and protein production yields are increased. Analyzing the proteome of cells producing the posttranslationally targeted BL1 indicates that the decreased synthesis of endogenous secretory and membrane proteins prevents a saturation of the Sec translocon capacity. Furthermore, in these cells, highly abundant chaperones and proteases can clear misfolded/aggregated proteins from the cytoplasm, thereby improving the fitness of these cells. Thus, the posttranslational targeting of BL1 enables its efficient production in the periplasm due to a favorable adaptation of the E. coli proteome. We envisage that our observations can be used to engineer E. coli for the improved production of recombinant secretory proteins.IMPORTANCE The bacterium Escherichia coli is widely used to produce recombinant proteins. To fold properly, many recombinant proteins have to be targeted to the E. coli periplasm, but so far the impact of the targeting pathway of a recombinant protein to the periplasm has not been extensively investigated. Here, we show that the targeting pathway of a recombinant antibody fragment has a tremendous impact on cell physiology, ultimately affecting protein production yields in the periplasm and biomass formation. This indicates that studying the targeting and secretion of proteins into the periplasm could be used to design strategies to improve recombinant protein production yields.

Dataset Information

Engineered small metal-binding protein tag improves the production of recombinant human growth hormone in the periplasm of Escherichia coli.

Publications

Engineered small metal-binding protein tag improves the production of recombinant human growth hormone in the periplasm of Escherichia coli.

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