幽门螺杆菌Lpp20融合蛋白的表达、标签切除及鉴定

目的:利用GST融合基因表达系统表达Lpp20-GST融合蛋白,并利用凝血酶切除GST标签.方法:IPTG诱导重组质粒Lpp20/pGEX-4T -1在大肠杆菌BL21 (DE3)中表达,菌体经反复冻融、溶菌酶裂解及超声破菌后,发现Lpp20-GST融合蛋白以部分可溶性的形式表达.采用GST蛋白纯化系统对其纯化,得到Lpp20- GST融合蛋白,再用凝血酶进行GST标签的切除,所得产物进行Western Blot鉴定.结果:高效表达出Lpp20-GST融合蛋白的相对分子质量约4.5kDa,凝血酶成功切除了GST标签,Western Blot证实Lpp20蛋白能被鼠抗Lpp20单克隆抗体识别.结论:成功表达和纯化了重组Lpp20蛋白,为深入研究Lpp20的功能奠定了基础.     

重组标签蛋白在蛋白质纯化中的研究进展

重组蛋白的表达纯化是研究蛋白质结构与功能的重要环节之一,表达重组蛋白宿主细胞的监测筛选和重组蛋白低水平可溶性表达、低回收率以及不稳定易水解等问题一直是蛋白质高通量纯化工艺中的难题。近年来,将多肽或蛋白质作为标签,与目标蛋白共表达的方法已经很大程度地解决了这一问题。因此,针对不同特性的蛋白质选择合适的标签纯化策略在重组蛋白纯化研究中是相当关键的环节。本文回顾了几种传统标签蛋白的研究概况(His-tag,Arg-tag,Flag-tag,GST-tag,MBP-tag等),着重对近年来新开发的了几种标签蛋白(Si-tag,Halo-tag,Intein-CBD-tag,ELPs-tag等)进行了深入探讨,并对新标签蛋白在蛋白质纯化中的应用前景作以展望。     

亲和标签在重组蛋白表达与纯化中的应用

亲和标签融合技术为重组蛋白的纯化提供了一种简单方便的纯化工具,具有结合特异性高、洗脱条件温和、通用性强、纯化倍数高等显著优点。概述了亲和标签对融合蛋白表达的影响,可以提高重组蛋白的产量,增强重组蛋白的可溶性,促进重组蛋白的正确折叠;回顾了在重组蛋白表达与纯化中广泛使用的几种亲和标签,以及近年来相继出现的几种比较新颖的纯化标签;介绍了亲和标签的组合使用策略,His6-MBP组合标签集合了两个标签的优点,串联亲和纯化可以纯化获得生理条件下的蛋白质复合体;展望了亲和标签未来的发展趋势,认为仍需继续开发性能更加优越、纯化效果更加显著的纯化标签系统。     

多聚组氨酸融合标签在蛋白药物开发中的应用

纯化技术是制约蛋白质药物开发及其产业化的关键技术之一。构建多聚组氨酸标签融合蛋白,采用固定金属离子亲和层析进行纯化,是一种高效的蛋白质纯化策略。介绍多聚组氨酸融合标签在蛋白质药物开发中的应用基础和应用概况,分析多聚组氨酸标签在融合蛋白中的位置对亲和层析纯化的影响,总结常用的多聚组氨酸融合表达方式,并对其融合表达样品的预处理、亲和层析纯化条件及其对目的蛋白药物药用安全性和有效性的影响进行探讨。     

小分子泛素相关修饰物SUMO及其融合表达

小分子泛素相关修饰物(small ubiquitin-related modifier,SUMO)是一类具有高度保守序列的低分子量蛋白.在蛋白质的融合表达中,SUMO作为融合标签得到了广泛应用.与其他传统融合标签如谷胱甘肽-S-转移酶、二硫键形成蛋白A、硫氧还蛋白等相比,SUMO具有防止蛋白降解、促进蛋白折叠、能被SUMO蛋白酶专一性识别切割并在目的蛋白上不会留下氨基酸残基等优点.本文综述SUMO融合蛋白及其配套的SUMO蛋白酶在融合表达中的优势和应用.     

幽门杆菌Catalase/GST融合蛋白的表达、标签切除及鉴定

旨在利用GST融合基因表达系统表达幽门螺杆菌Catalase融合蛋白,并利用凝血酶切除GST标签.将重组质粒Catalase/pGEX-4T-1转化大肠杆菌BL21( DE3)感受态中,用IPTG进行诱导表达,菌体经反复冻融、溶菌酶裂解及超声破菌后,Catalase/GST融合蛋白以部分可溶性的形式表达在上清中.采用谷胱甘肽琼脂糖树脂Glutathione Sepharose 4B对其进行纯化,得到Catalase/GST融合蛋白,再用凝血酶进行GST标签的切除,所得产物进行Western blotting鉴定.高效表达出Catalase/GST融合蛋白的相对分子质量约85 kD,凝血酶成功地切除了GST标签,Western blotting证实Catalase蛋白能被鼠抗Catalase单克隆抗体识别.     

重组人肿瘤坏死因子α抑制肽-抗炎酸性尾巴融合蛋白的生物学活性检测

目的：评价原核表达、纯化的6×His-硫氧还蛋白（TRX）一人肿瘤坏死因子α（TNFα）抑制肽-C端抗炎酸性尾巴融合蛋白的生物学功能。方法：在大肠杆菌中分别表达带His标签的TRX对照蛋白及TRX蛋白融合的人TNFα抑制肽-抗炎酸性尾巴融合蛋白,并对2种蛋白进行N^2＋金属螯合层析纯化,采用MTT法检测纯化后的蛋白及化学合成多肽抑制TNFα标准品对L929细胞的细胞毒活性。结果：与对照蛋白相比,融合蛋白人TNFα抑制肽-C端抗炎酸性尾巴及合成多肽均能拮抗TNFα标准品对L929细胞的细胞毒作用。结论：融合蛋白人TNFα抑制肽-C端抗炎酸性尾巴及合成肽均能有效拮抗TNFα的生物学作用,为今后发展抑制TNFα为主的抗炎生物药物奠定了基础。     

HCV丝氨酸蛋白酶小分子底物构建及GST融合表达

丝氨酸蛋白酶是丙型肝炎病毒重要的功能蛋白和药物作用靶点,其通过分子内（cis）和分子间（trans）方式催化水解前体蛋白,释放病毒功能蛋白。目的：为深入研究病毒蛋白酶活性和抑制剂鉴定需要,实验研究参照丙型肝炎病毒1a亚型菌株蛋白酶天然底物的氨基酸序列特点,设计了一段包含两个天然底物酶切位点的小分子多肽2S,并进行了原核表达。方法：利用PCR方法,合成2S小分子多肽基因,目的基因两端引入BamH I和EcoR I两个限制性酶切位点,双酶切后将基因与表达载体pGEX-4T-2重组,转化大肠杆菌DH5α,经化学诱导进行GST融合蛋白表达,通过亲和层析柱纯化目的蛋白。纯化的GST 2S融合蛋白在体外反应系统进行酶切鉴定,SDS-PAGE和ELISA鉴定酶切结果。结果：PCR合成的小分子底物多肽2S基因,经与表达载体重组后测序,证实基因序列正确。采用0.5mmol/L浓度的IPTG诱导工程菌过夜,获得表达的目的蛋白,经分离纯化得到融合蛋白GST-2S。GST-2S在体外磷酸盐缓冲系统中与丝氨酸蛋白酶反应,15%SDS-PAGE鉴定酶切产物,证实融合蛋白底物条带明显消失,ELISA结果同样说明融合蛋白的底物活性。结论：含有两个天然底物酶切位点的小分子多肽可以替代病毒天然底物,实验结果为丙型肝炎病毒丝氨酸蛋白酶活性研究和酶抑制剂研究奠定了方法学基础。     

融合标签技术在膜蛋白结构研究中的应用

膜蛋白高级结构的研究包括不同的层次,即膜蛋白拓扑学结构的研究、利用核磁共振技术和蛋白质晶体衍射技术对三维结构的研究,以及膜蛋白复合体的研究。在研究过程中,如果能够基于膜蛋白的拓扑学结构预测,选择合适的蛋白质或多肽融合标签,利用基因融合技术在基因水平上对膜蛋白进行改造,可以产生含有融合标签的重组膜蛋自,不仅具有原有膜蛋白的功能活性,还具有融合标签所特有的生理生化特性,将会极大地促进膜蛋白结构和功能的研究。我们就目前膜蛋白结构研究中所涉及的融合标签技术及其应用策略和所取得的进展做一简述。     

类弹性蛋白标签在重组蛋白分离纯化中的应用

类弹性蛋白(elastin-like polypeptide,ELP)是一种非常有前途的重组蛋白分离纯化标签.这种人工合成的蛋白质多肽是由五肽重复序列单元(VPGXG)串联组成,具有温度诱导的可逆相变特性.ELP与目的蛋白融合后,赋予重组蛋白相类似的可逆相变性质.多次可逆相变循环(inverse transition cycling,ITC)之后,就可以从蛋白溶液混合液中选择性地分离出ELP融合蛋白,再经特异性酶切或者改变环境条件引发内含肽发生自我剪切去除ELP标签,从而得到单一的目的蛋白,实现简单快速分离纯化重组蛋白.目前,该技术已成功应用于原核大肠杆菌和植物表达系统中.大肠杆菌表达ELP-绿色荧光融合蛋白的最高产量可达1.6 g/L.这种非色谱分离纯化重组蛋白的方法具有技术简单、操作快速、成本低、易于扩大等优点.重点从该技术的原理、技术路线以及发展方向进行综述.     

Recombinant chymosin used for exact and complete removal of a prochymosin derived fusion tag releasing intact native target protein

Fusion tags add desirable properties to recombinant proteins, but they are not necessarily acceptable in the final products. Ideally, fusion tags should be removed releasing the intact native protein with no trace of the tag. Unique endoproteinases with the ability to cleave outside their own recognition sequence can potentially cleave at the boundary of any native protein. Chymosin was recently shown to cleave a pro‐chymosin derived fusion tag releasing native target proteins. In our hands, however, not all proteins are chymosin‐resistant under the acidic cleavage conditions (pH 4.5) used in this system. Here, we have modified the pro‐chymosin fusion tag and demonstrated that chymosin can remove this tag at more neutral pH (pH 6.2); conditions, that are less prone to compromise the integrity of target proteins. Chymosin was successfully used to produce intact native target protein both at the level of small and large‐scale preparations. Using short peptide substrates, we further examined the influence of P1′ amino acid (the N‐terminus of the native target protein) and found that chymosin accepts many different, although not all, amino acids. We conclude that chymosin has several appealing characteristics for the exact removal of fusion tags. It is readily available in highly purified recombinant versions approved by the FDA for preparation of food for human consumption. We suggest that one should consider extending the use of chymosin to the preparation of pharmaceutical proteins.     

Crystal structures of fusion proteins with large-affinity tags

The fusion of a protein of interest to a large-affinity tag, such as the maltose-binding protein (MBP), thioredoxin (TRX), or glutathione-S-transferase (GST), can be advantageous in terms of increased expression, enhanced solubility, protection from proteolysis, improved folding, and protein purification via affinity chromatography. Unfortunately, crystal growth is hindered by the conformational heterogeneity induced by the fusion tag, requiring that the tag is removed by a potentially problematic cleavage step. The first three crystal structures of fusion proteins with large-affinity tags have been reported recently. All three structures used a novel strategy to rigidly fuse the protein of interest to MBP via a short three- to five-amino acid spacer. This strategy has the potential to aid structure determination of proteins that present particular experimental challenges and are not conducive to more conventional crystallization strategies (e.g., membrane proteins). Structural genomics initiatives may also benefit from this approach as a way to crystallize problematic proteins of significant interest.     

Mocr: a novel fusion tag for enhancing solubility that is compatible with structural biology applications

A persistent problem in heterologous protein production is insolubility of the target protein when expressed to high level in the host cell. A widely employed strategy for overcoming this problem is the use of fusion tags. The best fusion tags promote solubility, may function as purification handles and either do not interfere with downstream applications or may be removed from the passenger protein preparation. A novel fusion tag is identified that meets these criteria. This fusion tag is a monomeric mutant of the Ocr protein (0.3 gene product) of bacteriophage T7. This fusion tag displays solubilizing activity with a variety of different passenger proteins. We show that it may be used as a purification handle similar to other fusion tags. Its small size and compact structure are compatible with its use in downstream applications of the passenger protein or it may be removed and purified away from the passenger protein. The use of monomeric Ocr (Mocr) as a complement to other fusion tags such as maltose-binding protein will provide greater flexibility in protein production and processing for a wide variety of protein applications.     

利用EDA融合标签高效表达猪圆环病毒2型壳蛋白

原核生物作为宿主细胞被广泛应用于异源蛋白质的重组表达,并且为生物活性蛋白质的制备提供了一种高效、经济的方法,因而在分子生物学中得到普遍的应用。然而,病毒蛋白在使用原核重组表达系统进行重组表达时,会出现病毒蛋白溶解性差和表达量低等问题。因此,通过使用各种融合标签以增加目的重组蛋白的表达量和溶解性成为有效的方法。本研究通过使用3种融合标签（EDA标签、MBP标签和GST标签）以获得表达量高的可溶性重组表达猪圆环病毒2型壳蛋白;并比较3种融合标签对该蛋白表达量、溶解性和稳定性的影响。研究结果表明,EDA标签可以显著提高重组表达的猪圆环病毒2型壳蛋白表达量,并且能够增强该蛋白的稳定性;MBP标签可增强重组表达的猪圆环病毒2型壳蛋白表达量,但是不能改善该蛋白的稳定性;GST标签能够增强该重组表达蛋白的表达量,但是不能增强该蛋白的溶解性和稳定性。本研究将EDA作为PCV2-CP蛋白的融合标签,显著提高PCV2-CP-EDA重组蛋白的表达量和增强该重组蛋白的稳定性,为病毒蛋白的可溶性重组表达提供了一种新的融合标签。     

The novel Fh8 and H fusion partners for soluble protein expression in Escherichia coli: a comparison with the traditional gene fusion technology

The Escherichia coli host system is an advantageous choice for simple and inexpensive recombinant protein production but it still presents bottlenecks at expressing soluble proteins from other organisms. Several efforts have been taken to overcome E. coli limitations, including the use of fusion partners that improve protein expression and solubility. New fusion technologies are emerging to complement the traditional solutions. This work evaluates two novel fusion partners, the Fh8 tag (8 kDa) and the H tag (1 kDa), as solubility enhancing tags in E. coli and their comparison to commonly used fusion partners. A broad range comparison was conducted in a small-scale screening and subsequently scaled-up. Six difficult-to-express target proteins (RVS167, SPO14, YPK1, YPK2, Frutalin and CP12) were fused to eight fusion tags (His, Trx, GST, MBP, NusA, SUMO, H and Fh8). The resulting protein expression and solubility levels were evaluated by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis before and after protein purification and after tag removal. The Fh8 partner improved protein expression and solubility as the well-known Trx, NusA or MBP fusion partners. The H partner did not function as a solubility tag. Cleaved proteins from Fh8 fusions were soluble and obtained in similar or higher amounts than proteins from the cleavage of other partners as Trx, NusA or MBP. The Fh8 fusion tag therefore acts as an effective solubility enhancer, and its low molecular weight potentially gives it an advantage over larger solubility tags by offering a more reliable assessment of the target protein solubility when expressed as a fusion protein.     

A solubility-enhancement tag (SET) for NMR studies of poorly behaving proteins

Protein-fusion constructs have been used with great success for enhancing expression of soluble recombinant protein and as tags for affinity purification. Unfortunately the most popular tags, such as GST and MBP, are large, which hinders direct NMR studies of the fusion proteins. Cleavage of the fusion proteins often re-introduces problems with solubility and stability. Here we describe the use of N-terminally fused protein G (B1 domain) as a non-cleavable solubility-enhancement tag (SET) for structure determination of a dimeric protein complex. The SET enhances the solubility and stability of the fusion product dramatically while not interacting directly with the protein of interest. This approach can be used for structural characterization of poorly behaving protein systems, and would be especially useful for structural genomics studies.     

Making the Most of Fusion Tags Technology in Structural Characterization of Membrane Proteins

Membrane proteins can be investigated at various structural levels, including the topological structure, the high-resolution three-dimensional structure, and the organization and assembly of membrane protein complexes. Gene fusion technology makes it possible to insert a polynucleotide encoding a protein or polypeptide tag into the gene encoding a membrane protein of interest. Resultant recombinant proteins may possess the functions of the original membrane proteins, together with the biochemical properties of the imported fusion tag, greatly enhancing functional and structural studies of membrane proteins. In this article, the latest literature is reviewed in relation to types, applications, strategies, and approaches to fusion tag technology for structural investigations of membrane proteins.     

Degradation of C-terminal tag sequences on domain antibodies purified from E. coli supernatant

Expression of recombinant proteins often takes advantage of peptide tags expressed in fusion to allow easy detection and purification of the expressed proteins. However, as the fusion peptides most often are flexible appendages at the N- or C-terminal, proteolytic cleavage may result in removal of the tag sequence. Here, we evaluated the functionality and stability of 14 different combinations of commonly used tags for purification and detection of recombinant antibody fragments. The tag sequences were inserted in fusion with the c-terminal end of a domain antibody based on the HEL4 scaffold in a phagemid vector. This particular antibody fragment was able to refold on the membrane after blotting, allowing us to detect c-terminal tag breakdown by use of protein A in combination with detection of the tags in the specific constructs. The degradation of the c-terminal tags suggested specific sites to be particularly prone to proteolytic cleavage, leaving some of the tag combinations partially or completely degraded. This specific work illustrates the importance of tag design with regard to recombinant antibody expression in E. coli, but also aids the more general understanding of protein expression.     

A Pair of Ligation-Independent Escherichia coli Expression Vectors for Rapid Addition of a Polyhistidine Affinity Tag to the N- or C-Termini of Recombinant Proteins

6×His tag is one of the most widely used affinity fusion tags that facilitates detection and purification of recombinant proteins. However, the location of this tag within a particular type of protein may influence the expression, solubility, and bioactivity of the protein, and the optimal location needs to be determined experimentally. To provide a tool for rapid generation of 6× His tags at the N- or C-terminus of any recombinant protein, we have constructed a pair of Escherichia coli expression vectors—pLIC-NHis and pLIC-CHis—based on the pET30a vector, for ligation-independent cloning (LIC). Construction of this new pair of LIC vectors was accomplished by replacement of the multiple cloning site of pET30a with two specifically designed LIC cloning sites. A target gene derived by PCR with a pair of predesigned primers can be inserted into the LIC site of pLIC-NHis for expression of recombinant proteins fused with the N-terminal sequence MHHHHHHG or into that of pLIC-CHis for expression of recombinant proteins with the C-terminal sequence THHHHHH. Successful expression of two normal mammalian prion proteins and five bacterial proteins in E. coli using this pair of LIC vectors reveals that these vectors are valuable tools for the production of recombinant His-tagged proteins in E. coli.