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Consideration on Efficient Recombinant Protein Production: Focus on Substrate Protein-Specific Compatibility Patterns of Molecular Chaperones

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Abstract

Expression of recombinant proteins requires at times the aid of molecular chaperones for efficient post-translational folding into functional structure. However, predicting the compatibility of a protein substrate with the right type of chaperone to produce functional proteins is a daunting issue. To study the difference in effects of chaperones on His-tagged recombinant proteins with different characteristics, we performed in vitro proteins expression using Escherichia coli overexpressed with several chaperone ‘teams’: Trigger Factor (TF), GroEL/GroES and DnaK/DnaJ/GrpE, alone or in combinations, with the aim to determine whether protein secondary structure can serve as predictor for chaperone success. Protein A, which has a helix dominant structure, showed the most efficient folding with GroES/EL or TF chaperones alone, whereas Protein B, which has less helix in the structure, showed a remarkable effect on the DnaK/J/GrpE system alone. This tendency was also seen with other recombinant proteins with particular properties. With the chaperons’ assistance, both proteins were synthesized more efficiently in the culture at 22.5 °C for 20 h than at 37 °C for 3 h. These findings suggest a novel avenue to study compatibility of chaperones with substrate proteins and optimal culture conditions for producing functional proteins with a potential for predictive analysis of the success of chaperones based on the properties of the substrate protein.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AVF], upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The support for this study came from NIEHS grants R21 ES025379 and R21 ES023936. Dr. Fedulov is also supported in part by NIEHS grant R01 ES030227 and by Rhode Island Hospital Department of Surgery funds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, NAB-210. 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Naohiro Yano, Tania Emi & Alexey V. Fedulov

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    David J. Gregory

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  1. Naohiro Yano
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  2. Tania Emi
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  3. David J. Gregory
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  4. Alexey V. Fedulov
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Contributions

NY planed and conducted all the experiments. TE performed western blotting under supervision of and with help from NY. DJG designed and constructed expression vectors of Protein A and Protein B. AVF provided funding support and supervision of the entire work. NY wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Alexey V. Fedulov.

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The authors declare no financial conflict of interest.

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Yano, N., Emi, T., Gregory, D.J. et al. Consideration on Efficient Recombinant Protein Production: Focus on Substrate Protein-Specific Compatibility Patterns of Molecular Chaperones. Protein J 40, 756–764 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10930-021-09995-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10930-021-09995-4

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