Glucagon-induced self-association of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli and affinity purification using a fragment of glucagon receptor

Sequential Release of Proteins from Structured Multishell Microcapsules

In nature, a wide range of functional materials is based on proteins. Increasing attention is also turning to the use of proteins as artificial biomaterials in the form of films, gels, particles, and fibrils that offer great potential for applications in areas ranging from molecular medicine to materials science. To date, however, most such applications have been limited to single component materials despite the fact that their natural analogues are composed of multiple types of proteins with a variety of functionalities that are coassembled in a highly organized manner on the micrometer scale, a process that is currently challenging to achieve in the laboratory. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of multicomponent protein microcapsules where the different components are positioned in a controlled manner. We use molecular self-assembly to generate multicomponent structures on the nanometer scale and droplet microfluidics to bring together the different components on the micrometer scale. Using this approach, we synthesize a wide range of multiprotein microcapsules containing three well-characterized proteins: glucagon, insulin, and lysozyme. The localization of each protein component in multishell microcapsules has been detected by labeling protein molecules with different fluorophores, and the final three-dimensional microcapsule structure has been resolved by using confocal microscopy together with image analysis techniques. In addition, we show that these structures can be used to tailor the release of such functional proteins in a sequential manner. Moreover, our observations demonstrate that the protein release mechanism from multishell capsules is driven by the kinetic control of mass transport of the cargo and by the dissolution of the shells. The ability to generate artificial materials that incorporate a variety of different proteins with distinct functionalities increases the breadth of the potential applications of artificial protein-based materials and provides opportunities to design more refined functional protein delivery systems.

Enhancing the specificity of the enterokinase cleavage reaction to promote efficient cleavage of a fusion tag

In our work with designed minimalist proteins based on the bZIP motif, we have found our His-tagged proteins to be prone to inclusion body formation and aggregation; we suspect this problem is largely due to the His tag, known to promote aggregation. Using AhR6-C/EBP, a hybrid of the AhR basic region and C/EBP leucine zipper, as representative of our bZIP-like protein family, we attempted removal of the His tag with enterokinase (EK) but obtained the desired cleavage product in very small yield. EK is known for proteolysis at noncanonical sites, and most cleavage occurred at unintended sites. We manipulated experimental conditions to improve specificity of proteolysis and analyzed the cleavage products; no effect was observed after changing pH, temperature, or the amount of EK. We then suspected the accessibility of the EK site was impeded due to protein aggregation. We found that the easily implemented strategy of addition of urea (1-4 M) greatly improved EK cleavage specificity at the canonical site and reduced adventitious cleavage. We believe that this enhancement in specificity is due to a more "open" protein structure, in which the now accessible canonical target can compete effectively with adventitious cleavage sites of related sequence.

Solubility enhancement of aggregation-prone heterologous proteins by fusion expression using stress-responsive Escherichia coli protein, RpoS

Background

The most efficient method for enhancing solubility of recombinant proteins appears to use the fusion expression partners. Although commercial fusion partners including maltose binding protein and glutathione-S-transferase have shown good performance in enhancing the solubility, they cannot be used for the proprietory production of commercially value-added proteins and likely cannot serve as universal helpers to solve all protein solubility and folding issues. Thus, novel fusion partners will continue to be developed through systematic investigations including proteome mining presented in this study.

Results

We analyzed the Escherichia coli proteome response to the exogenous stress of guanidine hydrochloride using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and found that RpoS (RNA polymerase sigma factor) was significantly stress responsive. While under the stress condition the total number of soluble proteins decreased by about 7 %, but a 6-fold increase in the level of RpoS was observed, indicating that RpoS is a stress-induced protein. As an N-terminus fusion expression partner, RpoS increased significantly the solubility of many aggregation-prone heterologous proteins in E. coli cytoplasm, indicating that RpoS is a very effective solubility enhancer for the synthesis of many recombinant proteins. RpoS was also well suited for the production of a biologically active fusion mutant of Pseudomonas putida cutinase.

Conclusion

RpoS is highly effective as a strong solubility enhancer for aggregation-prone heterologous proteins when it is used as a fusion expression partner in an E. coli expression system. The results of these findings may, therefore, be useful in the production of other biologically active industrial enzymes, as successfully demonstrated by cutinase.

Enhanced protease cleavage efficiency on the glucagon-fused interleukin-2 by the addition of synthetic oligopeptides

Human interleukin-2 (hIL-2) was produced as a recombinant fusion protein (G3.IL-2/HF) consisting of three tandem-arranged human glucagon molecules (G3) and hIL-2. For the recovery of hIL-2, a factor Xa (FXa) cleavage sequence was introduced next to the N-terminus of hIL-2. Cleavage efficiency on this recombinant protein construct was very low because its recognition sequence was sterically hindered within the G3.IL-2/HF molecule and hence FXa access to the cleavage site was insufficient. We therefore introduced various synthetic oligopeptides upstream from the FXa cleavage site as a means to change substrate conformation and thereby increase cleavage efficiency. Among these oligopeptides, acidic or nucleophilic constructs were the most effective for the FXa-mediated cleavage of the fusion protein. In addition, insertion of various oligopeptides into the G3.IL-2/HF molecule varied the solubility of each construct depending on their physical properties. Consequently, the G3.IL-2/DF construct showed the highest final hIL-2 yields via FXa-mediated removal of the fusion partner. Lastly, we confirmed that cleavage efficiency was greatly increased but native hIL-2 was cleaved internally by non-specific cleavage when the acidic oligopeptide D4 (DDDD) was introduced upstream of the EK cleavage site within G3.IL-2/HE molecule. The G3.IL-2/HE molecule was shown to be an inefficient substrate to EK in a previous report (Biotechnol. Bioprocess Eng. (2000) 5, 13-16).

Molecular complementarity III. peptide complementarity as a basis for peptide receptor evolution: a bioinformatic case study of insulin, glucagon and gastrin

Dwyer has suggested that peptide receptors evolved from self-aggregating peptides so that peptide receptors should incorporate regions of high homology with the peptide ligand. If one considers self-aggregation to be a particular manifestation of molecular complementarity in general, then it is possible to extend Dwyer's hypothesis to a broader set of peptides: complementary peptides that bind to each other. In the latter case, one would expect to find homologous copies of the complementary peptide in the receptor. Thirteen peptides, 10 of which are not known to self-aggregate (amylin, ACTH, LHRH, angiotensin II, atrial natriuretic peptide, somatostatin, oxytocin, neurotensin, vasopressin, and substance P), and three that are known to self-aggregate (insulin, glucagon, and gastrin), were chosen. In addition to being self-aggregating, insulin and glucagon are also known to bind to each other, making them a mutually complementary pair. All possible combinations of the 13 peptides and the extracellular regions of their receptors were investigated using bioinformatic tools (a total of 325 combinations). Multiple, statistically significant homologies were found for insulin in the insulin receptor; insulin in the glucagon receptor; glucagon in the glucagon receptor; glucagon in the insulin receptor; and gastrin in gastrin binding protein and its receptor. Most of these homologies are in regions or sequences known to contribute to receptor binding of the respective hormone. These results suggest that the Dwyer hypothesis for receptor evolution may be generalizable beyond self-aggregating to complementary peptides. The evolution of receptors may have been driven by small molecule complementarity augmented by modular evolutionary processes that left a "molecular paleontology" that is still evident in the genome today. This "paleontology" may allow identification of peptide receptor sites.

Interplay of SOS induction, recombinant gene expression, and multimerization of plasmid vectors in Escherichia coli

Using pBR322- and pUC-derived plasmid vectors, a homologous (Escherichia coli native esterase) and three heterologous proteins (human interleukin-2, human interleukin-6, and Zymomonas levansucrase) were synthesized in E. coli IC2015(recA::lacZ) and GY4786 (sfiA::lacZ) strains. Via time-course measurement of beta-galactosidase activity in each recombinant culture, the SOS induction was estimated in detail and the results were systematically compared. In recombinant E. coli, the SOS response did not happen either with the recombinant insert-negative plasmid backbone alone or the expression vectors containing the homologous gene. Irrespective of gene expression level and toxic activity of synthesized foreign proteins, the SOS response was induced only when the heterologous genes were expressed using a particular plasmid vector, indicating strong dependence on the recombinant gene clone and the selection of a plasmid vector system. It is suggested that in recombinant E. coli the SOS response (i.e., activation of recA expression and initial sfiA expression) may be related neither to metabolic burden nor toxic cellular event(s) by synthesized heterologous protein, but may be provoked by foreign gene-specific interaction between a foreign gene and a plasmid vector. Unlike in E. coli XL1-blue(recA(-)) strains used, all expression vectors encoding each of the three heterologous proteins were multimerized in E. coli IC2015 strains in the course of cultivation, whereas the expression vectors containing the homologous gene never formed the plasmid multimers. The extent of multimerization was also dependent on a foreign gene insert in the expression vector. As a dominant effect of the SOS induction, recombinant plasmid vectors used for heterologous protein expression appear to significantly form various multimers in the recA(+) E. coli host.

Thermal stability of human ferritin: concentration dependence and enhanced stability of an N-terminal fusion mutant

Though human L-chain ferritin has been known to be more resistant to physical denaturation than H-type ferritin, its stability characteristics and kinetic information have not been reported in detail. Overexpressed recombinant ferritin (FTN) in Escherichia coli formed inclusion bodies through noncovalent molecular interaction and easily dissolved with regaining the iron-uptake activity by a simple pH-shift process at high protein concentration (>600 mg l(-1)). FTN was relatively thermostable at low protein concentration (0.2 g l(-1)), but it became extremely thermolabile at high protein concentration (1.3 g l(-1)), i.e., more than 80% of FTN was coprecipitated within 5 min under the same heat-induced denaturation condition. Aggregation rate constant for initial 5 min at high protein concentration was 6.04 x 10(-3) s(-1) for FTN. Surprisingly, glucagon. ferritin mutant (GFTN), consisting of an N-terminus fusion partner, human glucagon (29-residue alpha-helical peptide), showed significantly enhanced thermal stability even at high protein concentration. That is, in spite of 40-min heat treatment, more than 50% of GFTN the still remained soluble with maintaining the same functional properties. The aggregation rate constants were 2.75 x 10(-4) and 2.80 x 10(-4) s(-1) at low and high concentration, respectively, for GFTN. These results suggest a critical participation of the N-terminal domain of ferritin in the temperature-induced aggregation pathway. Presumably, partially denatured amino terminus of FTN is involved in nonspecific molecular interaction resulting in the off-pathway aggregation. It is notable that the purified GFTN showed the same molar capacity of iron (Fe(+3)) storage as standard ferritin. From the analysis of fluorescence emission spectrum, the physical stability of GFTN was also very comparable to that of standard ferritin under the various denaturation conditions induced by GdnHCl.

Secretory production of Arthrobacter levan fructotransferase from recombinant Escherichia coli

Levan fructotransferase (LFTase) from Arthrobacter ureafaciens K2032 was expressed with N-terminal fusion of a LacZ-derived secretion motif (TMITNSSSVP) using the lac promoter system in recombinant Escherichia coli JM109 [pUDF-A81]. In flask cultures, recombinant enzyme activity was detected in culture media, and sequence analysis of N-terminal residues showed that about 40% of the extracellular recombinant LFTase had an authentic N-terminus. In a fed-batch bioreactor containing recombinant E. coli at high cell concentrations (OD(600)>200), the extracellular LFTase accumulated to 46000 U ml(-1) (approximately 2.0 g l(-1)) which was almost 40% of total (intra- and extracellular) recombinant LFTase. The synthesized recombinant enzyme was secreted soon after gene expression was induced by IPTG. Prolonged high secretion caused cell lysis and growth inhibition during the production phase in fed-batch cultures. When lactose was added by continuous feed mode, the secretion of recombinant LFTase and hence the cell lysis were significantly delayed in spite of the increased synthesis level. Therefore the induced cell culture of recombinant E. coli could grow up to a much higher cell concentration with continuing recombinant enzyme synthesis. In the case of the controlled feed of lactose, the maximum activities (U ml(-1)) of total and extracellular LFTase were nearly 100% and 70% higher, respectively.