Effect of the codon following the ATG start site on the expression of ovine growth hormone in Escherichia coli

Rare codon priority and its position specificity at the 5' of the gene modulates heterologous protein expression in Escherichia coli

Rare codons and their effects in heterologous protein expression in Escherichia coli were addressed by many investigators. Here, we propose that not all rare codons of a foreign gene have negative effect but selective codon among them and its specific position in the downstream of the start codon modulates the expression. In our study, streptokinase (47 kDa), encoded by skc gene of Streptococcus equisimilis was expressed in E.coli. The analysis of relative codon frequency of skc gene in E.coli reveals the presence of 30% of rare codons in it. Nevertheless, E.coli managed to yield over-expression of this target protein. To explore the codon bias in expression, we have introduced the selective AGG codon at different positions of skc gene such as +2,+3,+5,+8,+9 and +11. The results revealed that at +2 position "AGG" aided over-expression while shifting to +3 and +5 positions it rendered nil expression. In contrary, shifting of AGG codon to later positions like +9 and +11 the inhibitory effect was reversed and resulted in over-expression. The effect of 'AGG' rare codon was further studied in GFP expression. In conclusion, besides the choice of rare codons, their precise positions in the foreign gene dictate the level of protein expression.

Molecular cloning, characterization, and expression studies of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) somatotropin

Cloning, high-level expression, and characterization of the somatotropin (ST) gene of an indigenous Nili-Ravi breed of water buffalo Bubalus bubalis (BbST) are described. Coding, non-coding, and promoter regions of BbST were amplified and sequenced. Sequence analysis revealed several silent and two interesting point mutations on comparison with STs of other vertebrate species. One interesting variation in the BbST sequence was the replacement of a conserved glutamine residue by arginine. A plasmid was also constructed for the production of BbST in Escherichia coli BL21 (RIPL) CodonPlus, under the control of IPTG-inducible T7-lac promoter. High-level expression could be obtained by synthesizing a codon-optimized ST gene and expressing it in the form of inclusion bodies. The inclusion bodies represented over 20% of the E. coli cellular proteins. The biologically active conformation of purified BbST was confirmed by its efficient growth promoting activity in Nb2 cell proliferation assay. The expression system and purification strategy employed promise to be a useful approach to produce BbST for further use in structure-function studies and livestock industry.

The presence of N-terminal secretion signal sequences leads to strong stimulation of the total expression levels of three tested medically important proteins during high-cell-density cultivations of Escherichia coli

Genetic optimizations to achieve high-level production of three different proteins of medical importance for humans, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interferon alpha 2b (IFN-alpha2b), and single-chain antibody variable fragment (scFv-phOx), were investigated during high-cell-density cultivations of Escherichia coli. All three proteins were poorly expressed when put under control of the strong Pm/xylS promoter/regulator system, but high volumetric yields of GM-CSF and scFv-phOx (up to 1.7 and 2.3 g/liter, respectively) were achieved when the respective genes were fused to a translocation signal sequence. The choice of signal sequence, pelB, ompA, or synthetic signal sequence CSP, displayed a high and specific impact on the total expression levels for these two proteins. Data obtained by quantitative PCR confirmed relatively high in vivo transcript levels without using a fused signal sequence, suggesting that the signal sequences mainly stimulate translation. IFN-alpha2b expression remained poor even when fused to a signal sequence, and an alternative IFN-alpha2b coding sequence that was optimized for effective expression in Escherichia coli was therefore synthesized. The total expression level of this optimized gene remained low, while high-level production (0.6 g/liter) was achieved when the gene was fused to a signal sequence. Together, our results demonstrate a critical role of signal sequences for achieving industrial level expression of three human proteins in E. coli under the conditions tested, and this effect has to our knowledge not previously been systematically investigated.

Rapid and easy thermodynamic optimization of the 5'-end of mRNA dramatically increases the level of wild type protein expression in Escherichia coli

Low levels of expression in Escherichia coli are often observed when using wild type proteins. The addition of an N-terminal His-tag to these same proteins dramatically improves the level of expression. We therefore concluded that post-transcriptional regulation and in particular translational regulation are probably influenced by the presence of the tag. The RNAfold program was used to analyze the 5'-end of the encoding mRNA, and more precisely the area encompassing the Shine-Dalgarno region and the initiation codon ATG. We observed that hairpin loops can be formed and that the stability of these loops correlates with the level of protein expression in E. coli. Our recently developed cloning technology by PCR fragment integration allows us to easily and rapidly introduce mutations anywhere within a gene. In our studies, we used this technology to destabilize the predicted hairpin by introducing silent mutations within the first 72 nucleotides of the coding sequence. As a result of the decreased stability of the RNA hairpins, we could significantly increase the level of expression of wild type proteins and without having to rely on the use of tags in E. coli. In addition, our studies allow us to predict whether or not a protein will be expressed without additional engineering of its encoding gene.

Protein production in Escherichia coli for structural studies by X-ray crystallography

The arrival of genomic sequences to the database has provided a seemingly unlimited supply of targets for protein structure determination and the possibility of solving the structure of an entire proteome. Based on our experience with the proteomes of Pyrobaculum aerophilum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we have developed a simple strategy for the production of proteins for structural studies by X-ray crystallography. Our scheme demonstrates a strong protein target commitment and includes the expression of genes from these organisms in Escherichia coli. These proteins are expressed with affinity tags and purified for characterization and crystallization. We have identified protein solubility and crystallization as the two major bottlenecks in the process toward the determination of protein structures by X-ray diffraction. Strategies to overcome these bottlenecks are discussed.

Expression of active human C1 inhibitor serpin domain in Escherichia coli

Human C1 inhibitor is a highly glycosylated serine protease inhibitor of the serpin family. The protein contains two disulfide bonds. In this study, an N-terminally truncated form of recombinant C1 inhibitor was overexpressed in Escherichia coli strains BL21(DE3) and AD494(DE3), the latter enabling the formation of disulfide bonds within the cytoplasm. With both strains, a major fraction of the recombinant protein produced appeared to be insoluble. However, the soluble fraction of lysates from strain AD494(DE3) inhibited the C1s target protease in functional assays. Recombinant C1 inhibitor produced in this strain also displayed the ability to complex with C1s in vitro. In contrast, lysates from strain BL21(DE3) displayed no C1 inhibitor activity. These data support the notion that glycosylation is not important, whereas disulfide bond formation appears to be essential for the production of an active recombinant C1 inhibitor. Thus, bacterial strains that permit the formation of disulfide bonds may represent a reliable system for the production of recombinant C1 inhibitor. However, a major obstacle to large-scale production will be to produce the protein in a soluble form. Attempts to increase the yield of soluble protein by coexpression of the GroEL/ES chaperonins resulted in an increase in solubility.