Enhanced expression of cytochrome P450s from lac-based plasmids using lactose as the inducer

The cytochrome P450 expression systems used in Escherichia coli are highly regulated and involve the use of the lac repressor to control expression. Induction in these systems utilizes the nonmetabolizable analog of lactose, isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), which is the most expensive compound required for an E. coli expression system. To determine if the natural inducer lactose could be used to induce cytochrome P450 expression we examined the expression of three P450 enzymes in E. coli using two different expression systems, pTrc99A and the T7-based PET22b vector. For both systems lactose was found to induce expression of active P450 to concentrations that exceeded the levels achieved with IPTG. A 20-liter fermentation of a P450 expression system in the pTrc plasmid in which lactose was used as the inducer resulted in 2.4 micromol P450/liter, with a total yield of 2 g of cytochrome P450. The use of lactose for protein expression in E. coli should be broadly useful for the inexpensive, large-scale production of heterologous proteins in E. coli.     

Lactose permease of Escherichia coli catalyzes active beta-galactoside transport in a gram-positive bacterium.

The following several lines of evidence demonstrate that lactose permease (LacY) of Escherichia coli is assembled into the cytoplasmic membrane of gram-positive Corynebacterium glutamicum, expressing the lacY gene, as a functional carrier protein. (i) LacY was detected immunologically in the cytoplasmic membrane fraction of the heterologous host. (ii) Recombinant C. glutamicum cells bearing the lacY gene displayed an increased influx of o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside, which was inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide. (iii) Washed cells were capable of accumulating methyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside about 60-fold. (iv) The uptake of methyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside was energy dependent and could be inhibited by the addition of 10 microM carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone. LacY of E. coli was active in the recombinant C. glutamicum cells despite the different membrane lipid compositions of these organisms.     

Regulatable arabinose-inducible gene expression system with consistent control in all cells of a culture

The arabinose-inducible promoter P(BAD) is subject to all-or-none induction, in which intermediate concentrations of arabinose give rise to subpopulations of cells that are fully induced and uninduced. To construct a host-vector expression system with regulatable control in a homogeneous population of cells, the araE gene of Escherichia coli was cloned into an RSF1010-derived plasmid under control of the isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside-inducible P(tac) and P(taclac) promoters. This gene encodes the low-affinity, high-capacity arabinose transport protein and is controlled natively by an arabinose-inducible promoter. To detect the effect of arabinose-independent araE expression on population homogeneity and cell-specific expression, the gfpuv gene was placed under control of the arabinose-inducible araBAD promoter (P(BAD)) on the pMB1-derived plasmid pBAD24. The transporter and reporter plasmids were transformed into E. coli strains with native arabinose transport systems and strains deficient in one or both of the arabinose transport systems (araE and/or araFGH). The effects of the arabinose concentration and arabinose-independent transport control on population homogeneity were investigated in these strains using flow cytometry. The araE, and araE araFGH mutant strains harboring the transporter and reporter plasmids were uniformly induced across the population at all inducer concentrations, and the level of gene expression in individual cells varied with arabinose concentration. In contrast, the parent strain, which expressed the native araE and araFGH genes and harbored the transporter and reporter plasmids, exhibited all-or-none behavior. This work demonstrates the importance of including a transport gene that is controlled independently of the inducer to achieve regulatable and consistent induction in all cells of the culture.     

Evidencing the role of lactose permease in IPTG uptake by Escherichia coli in fed-batch high cell density cultures

The lac-operon and its components have been studied for decades and it is widely used as one of the common systems for recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli. However, the role of the lactose permease, encoded by the lacY gene, when using the gratuitous inducer IPTG for the overexpression of heterologous proteins, is still a matter of discussion. A lactose permease deficient strain was successfully constructed. Growing profiles and acetate production were compared with its parent strain at shake flask scale. Our results show that the lac-permease deficient strain grows slower than the parent in defined medium at shake flask scale, probably due to a downregulation of the phosphotransferase system (PTS). The distributions of IPTG in the medium and inside the cells, as well as recombinant protein production were measured by HPLC-MS and compared in substrate limiting fed-batch fermentations at different inducer concentrations. For the mutant strain, IPTG concentration in the medium depletes slower, reaching at the end of the culture higher concentration values compared with the parent strain. Final intracellular and medium concentrations of IPTG were similar for the mutant strain, while higher intracellular concentrations than in medium were found for the parent strain. Comparison of the distribution profiles of IPTG of both strains in fed-batch fermentations showed that lac-permease is crucially involved in IPTG uptake. In the absence of the transporter, apparently IPTG only diffuses, while in the presence of lac-permease, the inducer accumulates in the cytoplasm at higher rates emphasizing the significant contribution of the permease-mediated transport.     

乳糖诱导的重组人血管内皮抑素(rhEndostatin)蛋白的表达

研究用乳糖替代IPTG作为诱导剂进行重组蛋白的表达,观察乳糖对乳糖操纵子调控的基因工程菌发酵及重组血管内皮抑素表达的影响,从而选取最佳诱导表达条件。以重组人血管内皮抑素表达工程菌pETrhEN/BL21(DE3)作为研究对象,分别用IPTG和乳糖作为诱导剂,在摇瓶中进行表达实验。并对重组蛋白质表达量进行分析。然后在5 L发酵罐中进行验证。在摇瓶培养条件下,乳糖浓度大于0.5 g/L即可以诱导目的蛋白的表达。乳糖浓度1 g/L时诱导目的蛋白表达量与1 mmol/L的IPTG相当,当乳糖浓度为10 g/L,目的蛋白表达量达到最大。在发酵罐培养条件下,补料4 h后葡萄糖浓度基本耗尽,此时开始加入乳糖。诱导后1 h,即有重组蛋白表达,在诱导后4 h达到高峰(占菌体可溶性蛋白的56%),与此同时,诱导后5 h菌体浓度也达到最高值。在以乳糖操纵子为调控手段的工程菌表达系统中,可以使用乳糖作为诱导剂,诱导应在葡萄糖消耗完后进行。     

lac operon induction in Escherichia coli: Systematic comparison of IPTG and TMG induction and influence of the transacetylase LacA

Most commonly used expression systems in bacteria are based on the Escherichia coli lac promoter. Furthermore, lac operon elements are used today in systems and synthetic biology. In the majority of the cases the gratuitous inducers IPTG or TMG are used. Here we report a systematic comparison of lac promoter induction by TMG and IPTG which focuses on the aspects inducer uptake, population heterogeneity and a potential influence of the transacetylase, LacA. We provide induction curves in E. coli LJ110 and in isogenic lacY and lacA mutant strains and we show that both inducers are substrates of the lactose permease at low inducer concentrations but can also enter cells independently of lactose permease if present at higher concentrations. Using a gfp reporter strain we compared TMG and IPTG induction at single cell level and showed that bimodal induction with IPTG occurred at approximately ten-fold lower concentrations than with TMG. Furthermore, we observed that lac operon induction is influenced by the transacetylase, LacA. By comparing two Plac-gfp reporter strains with and without a lacA deletion we could show that in the lacA⁺ strain the fluorescence level decreased after few hours while the fluorescence further increased in the lacA⁻ strain. The results indicate that through the activity of LacA the IPTG concentration can be reduced below an inducing threshold concentration—an influence that should be considered if low inducer amounts are used.     

乳糖诱导木聚糖酶基因在大肠杆菌中的可溶性表达

以构建好的大肠杆菌工程菌BL21(DE3)/xylanase为研究对象,研究了以IPTG和乳糖作为诱导剂时重组蛋白的表达规律。在摇瓶发酵条件下研究了诱导剂浓度、诱导时机、诱导培养时间和诱导培养温度对目标蛋白表达的影响。实验结果表明,乳糖作为诱导剂时,重组菌产酶活力33.9 U/mg略高于IPTG作为诱导剂时重组菌产酶活力28.10 U/mg,这为乳糖作为诱导剂应用于重组大肠杆菌生产木聚糖酶提供了参考依据。     

The Effect of the lacY Gene on the Induction of IPTG Inducible Promoters, Studied in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fluorescens

The role of the Escherichia coli lacY gene product (the lactose permease) in the induction of isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) inducible promoters was studied in E. coli and P. fluorescens. This was done by comparing strains containing a lacIPOZYA chromosomal insert with newly constructed strains containing inserts without the lacY gene (lacIPOZ). The lactose operon inserts were introduced as single-copy chromosomal inserts to eliminate differences in expression caused by differences in copy number. Comparison between the two types of inserts showed that the lactose permease was essential to allow growth on lactose by both bacteria and that the lactose permease plays an important role in transporting the inducer IPTG across the membrane of P. fluorescens. The use of a functional lactose permease allows expression of β-galactosidase to increase more than fivefold from a wild-type lac promoter in P. fluorescens SS1001. We suggest that an increase in the rate of protein synthesis from lac-type promoters could be enhanced if an active lactose permease is present as well. Received: 29 October 1997 / Accepted: 8 December 1997     

Functional expression of human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in Escherichia coli

The complete coding sequence for human glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G6PD) was inserted downstream from the tac promoter of a plasmid, pJF118EH, which also carries the lacIq repressor gene. When Escherichia coli strains (that are unable to grow on glucose due to the absence of functional zwf (G6PD-) and pgi genes) were transformed with this plasmid (pAC1), they were able to grow on glucose as sole carbon source. The rate of growth on glucose was faster in the presence of the inducer of the tac promoter, isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). Extracts of the transformed cells contained a G6PD activity that was not detectable in the parental strains and that was inducible by IPTG. The G6PD activities from normal E. coli and from pAC1-transformed cells comigrated with human G6PD when subjected to electrophoresis on agarose gels. However, when denatured, the G6PD produced by pAC1 was, like the human enzyme, distinguishable from the E. coli-encoded enzyme on the basis of its immunoreactivity with antibody specific for human G6PD. Therefore, human G6PD can be expressed in E. coli and can function to complement the bacterial enzyme deficiency.     

Membrane assembly of lactose permease of Escherichia coli.

Lactose permease, the lacY gene product in Escherichia coli, is an integral membrane protein. Its induction was examined in secAts and secYts mutants by measuring o-nitrophenyl-beta-galactoside uptake activity. In contrast to the synthesis of the maltose binding protein, the malE gene product, which is dependent on the secA and secY gene products, lactose permease seemed to be produced and integrated functionally into membrane independently of SecA or SecY. Gene fusion of the lamB signal sequence to the N-terminal part of the lactose permease gene resulted in production of active fused permease in the E. coli membrane. The signal sequence did not seem to be processed, judging from its mobility on SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. E. coli cell growth was super-sensitive to induction of production of the fused permease with the signal sequence in contrast to induction of the normal lactose permease. These results are consistent with the above observation that production and integration of LacY protein into membrane is relatively independent of the SecY protein that may have a certain specificity for the signal sequence or, more generally, membrane translocation intermediates.     

乳糖诱导剂促进P450 BM-3在大肠杆菌中可溶性表达的研究

P450 BM-3是一种具有工业化应用潜力的单加氧酶,可催化饱和脂肪酸羟基化。为提高其在大肠杆菌宿主中的可溶性表达水平,采用乳糖作为诱导剂对P450 BM-3的诱导表达条件进行研究。结果发现：在大肠杆菌的OD600达到0.7~1.5时,添加2.0 g/L的乳糖、30℃诱导10 h可获得最佳诱导效果。与IP TG的诱导效果对比发现：采用乳糖作诱导剂时,菌体生物量提高1.09倍,目标蛋白量提升2.13倍,蛋白包涵体的比例则降低至10%。研究结果表明：乳糖可显著提升P450 BM-3在大肠杆菌中的重组表达水平,并且能够促进p450 BM-3的可溶性表达。     

乳糖诱导重组尿酸酶基因在大肠杆菌中的表达

对用乳糖替代异丙基-β-D-硫代半乳糖苷(IPTG)诱导重组产朊假丝酵母尿酸酶基因在E.coli JM109(DE3)中表达进行了研究,拟建立一种高效低成本的生产重组尿酸酶的工艺路线。通过摇瓶试验对诱导所采用的乳糖浓度,诱导时机和诱导持续时间进行了优化,并考察在乳糖诱导下的目的产物表达动力学,随后在5 L发酵罐上进行扩大化培养以验证摇瓶优化的结果,进一步将乳糖作为诱导剂应用于高密度发酵过程。实验结果表明乳糖诱导的最佳浓度为5 g/L,最佳诱导时机是对数生长期中后期,诱导持续时间为9~10h;按照优化的条件在摇瓶和5 L发酵罐上进行分批培养,重组尿酸酶最大表达量可达菌体总蛋白的26%左右,可溶性蛋白的36%左右,略高于IPTG的诱导效果;高密度发酵过程菌体终密度达到OD600值40以上,尿酸酶表达量占菌体总蛋白25%左右。     

Large increase in Leuconostoc citreum KM20 dextransucrase activity achieved by changing the strain/inducer combination in an E. coli expression system

A recombinant putative dextransucrase (DexT) was produced from Leuconostoc citreum KM20 as a 160 kDa protein, but its productivity was very low (264 U/l). For optimization, we examined enzyme activity in 7 Escherichia coli strains with inducer molecules such as lactose or IPTG. E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(DE3)-RIL exhibited the highest enzyme activity with lactose. Finally, DexT activity was remarkably increased by 12-fold under the optimized culture conditions of a cell density to start induction (OD???) of 0.95, a lactose concentration of 7.5 mM, and an induction temperature of 17 degrees C. These results may effectively apply to the heterologous expression of other large DexT genes.     

Arabinose-induction of lac-derived promoter systems for penicillin acylase production in Escherichia coli

Arabinose was shown to serve as an effective inducer for induction of the lac-derived promoters in Escherichia coli using penicillin acylase (PAC) as a model protein. Upon the induction with a conventional inducer, isopropyl-beta-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), for pac overexpression, which is regulated by the trc or (DE3)/T7 promoter, the production of PAC was limited by the accumulation of PAC precursors (proPAC) as inclusion bodies. Negative cellular responses, such as growth inhibition and cell lysis, were frequently observed, resulting in a low pac expression level and poor culture performance. Interestingly, these technical hurdles can be overcome simply through the use of arabinose as an inducer. The results indicate that arabinose not only induced the lac-derived promoter systems (i.e., trc and (DE3)/T7) for pac (or LL pac) overexpression but also facilitated the posttranslational processing of proPAC for maturation. However, the arabinose-inducibility appears to be host-dependent and becomes less observable in the strains with a mutation in the ara operon. The arabinose-inducibility was also investigated in the expression system with the coexistence of the trc promoter system regulating pac expression and another arabinose-inducible promoter system of araB regulating degP coexpression.     

Galactose can be an inducer for production of therapeutic proteins by auto-induction using E. coli BL21 strains

Recently lactose mediated auto-induction in Escherichia coli has gained a lot of interest because higher protein titer could be achieved without the need to monitor growth and add inducer at the proper time. In this study a high level therapeutic protein production by auto-induction was observed in E. coli BL21 using either T7 or tac promoters in the modified Luria Bertani (mLB) medium containing soy peptone instead of tryptone in Luria Bertani (LB) medium. Based on medium analysis and spiking experiments it was found that 0.4 mM galactose from the soy peptone caused the auto-induction. E. coli cultures induced by galactose can saturate at considerably higher density than cultures induced by IPTG. Galactose is not consumed by E. coli BL21. Finally it has been demonstrated that auto-induction can be effectively used in fed-batch fermentation for the industrial production of a therapeutic protein. The principle of galactose mediated auto-induction should be able to apply to high throughput microplates, shake flasks and fed-batch fermentors for clone screening and therapeutic protein expression in E. coli gal(-) strains such as most commonly used BL21.     

基因重组大肠杆菌表达HrpNEcc蛋白的发酵条件及诱导条件优化

对已构建好的表达HrpNEcc蛋白的工程菌BL21(DE3)/pET30a(+)hrpN Ecc的摇瓶发酵条件及乳糖诱导进行优化, 通过在7L发酵罐中放大发酵实验,以期提高蛋白产量并降低生产成本。在摇瓶中优化的发酵及诱导条件是：5% 的接种量,TB培养基,菌体培养至对数生长前期,添加3g/L外源诱导剂乳糖时,HrpNEcc蛋白产量可达417.60mg/L,比不添加乳糖时提高了36.73%,比用IPTG诱导时提高了16.85%。7L发酵罐中发酵,获得菌体湿重达到57.24g/L（WCW）,可溶性HrpNEcc蛋白产量占细胞总蛋白的50.2%,为3.29 g/L。     

Involvement of the central loop of the lactose permease of Escherichia coli in its allosteric regulation by the glucose-specific enzyme IIA of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system.

Allosteric regulation of several sugar transport systems such as those specific for lactose, maltose and melibiose in Escherichia coli (inducer exclusion) is mediated by the glucose-specific enzyme IIA (IIAGlc) of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS). Deletion mutations in the cytoplasmic N and C termini of the lactose permease protein, LacY, and replacement of all cysteine residues in LacY with other residues did not prevent IIAGlc-mediated inhibition of lactose uptake, but several point and insertional mutations in the central cytoplasmic loop of this permease abolished transport regulation and IIAGlc binding. The results substantiate the conclusion that regulation of the lactose permease in E. coli by the PTS is mediated by a primary interaction of IIAGlc with the central cytoplasmic loop of the permease.     

乳糖作为诱导剂对重组目的蛋白表达的影响

将重组粒细胞-巨噬细胞集落刺激因子/白细胞介素3(GM-CSF/IL-3)融合蛋白表达菌BL21(DE3)(pFu)作为研究对象,对于以乳糖作为诱导剂时重组目的产物的诱导表达规律进行了深入的研究。分析比较了不同培养基中,不同生长阶段进行诱导对于产物表达的影响。对诱导所需的乳糖浓度、诱导持续时间长短等因素亦进行了研究。实验结果表明,在对诱导条件进行优化控制的前提下,利用乳糖作为诱导剂可以达到与IPTG类似的诱导效果。随后的研究中,将乳糖作为诱导剂应用于高密度发酵过程。这些研究结果为乳糖作为诱导剂最终应用于重组基因工程药物的工业化生产提供了有益的参考和借鉴。