Production of protein-based polymers in Pichia pastoris

Materials science and genetic engineering have joined forces over the last three decades in the development of so-called protein-based polymers. These are proteins, typically with repetitive amino acid sequences, that have such physical properties that they can be used as functional materials. Well-known natural examples are collagen, silk, and elastin, but also artificial sequences have been devised. These proteins can be produced in a suitable host via recombinant DNA technology, and it is this inherent control over monomer sequence and molecular size that renders this class of polymers of particular interest to the fields of nanomaterials and biomedical research. Traditionally, Escherichia coli has been the main workhorse for the production of these polymers, but the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is finding increased use in view of the often high yields and potential bioprocessing benefits. We here provide an overview of protein-based polymers produced in P. pastoris. We summarize their physicochemical properties, briefly note possible applications, and detail their biosynthesis. Some challenges that may be faced when using P. pastoris for polymer production are identified: (i) low yields and poor process control in shake flask cultures; i.e., the need for bioreactors, (ii) proteolytic degradation, and (iii) self-assembly in vivo. Strategies to overcome these challenges are discussed, which we anticipate will be of interest also to readers involved in protein expression in P. pastoris in general.     

Intrinsic disorder in protein sense‐antisense recognition

In addition to the well‐established sense‐antisense complementarity abundantly present in the nucleic acid world and serving as a basic principle of the specific double‐helical structure of DNA, production of mRNA, and genetic code‐based biosynthesis of proteins, sense‐antisense complementarity is also present in proteins, where sense and antisense peptides were shown to interact with each other with increased probability. In nucleic acids, sense‐antisense complementarity is achieved via the Watson‐Crick complementarity of the base pairs or nucleotide pairing. In proteins, the complementarity between sense and antisense peptides depends on a specific hydropathic pattern, where codons for hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acids in a sense peptide are complemented by the codons for hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acids in its antisense counterpart. We are showing here that in addition to this pattern of the complementary hydrophobicity, sense and antisense peptides are characterized by the complementary order‐disorder patterns and show complementarity in sequence distribution of their disorder‐based interaction sites. We also discuss how this order‐disorder complementarity can be related to protein evolution.     

Non-chromatographic Purification of Recombinant Elastin-like Polypeptides and their Fusions with Peptides and Proteins from Escherichia coli

Elastin-like polypeptides are repetitive biopolymers that exhibit a lower critical solution temperature phase transition behavior, existing as soluble unimers below a characteristic transition temperature and aggregating into micron-scale coacervates above their transition temperature. The design of elastin-like polypeptides at the genetic level permits precise control of their sequence and length, which dictates their thermal properties. Elastin-like polypeptides are used in a variety of applications including biosensing, tissue engineering, and drug delivery, where the transition temperature and biopolymer architecture of the ELP can be tuned for the specific application of interest. Furthermore, the lower critical solution temperature phase transition behavior of elastin-like polypeptides allows their purification by their thermal response, such that their selective coacervation and resolubilization allows the removal of both soluble and insoluble contaminants following expression in Escherichia coli. This approach can be used for the purification of elastin-like polypeptides alone or as a purification tool for peptide or protein fusions where recombinant peptides or proteins genetically appended to elastin-like polypeptide tags can be purified without chromatography. This protocol describes the purification of elastin-like polypeptides and their peptide or protein fusions and discusses basic characterization techniques to assess the thermal behavior of pure elastin-like polypeptide products.     

A decade and a half of protein intrinsic disorder: Biology still waits for physics

The abundant existence of proteins and regions that possess specific functions without being uniquely folded into unique 3D structures has become accepted by a significant number of protein scientists. Sequences of these intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and IDP regions (IDPRs) are characterized by a number of specific features, such as low overall hydrophobicity and high net charge which makes these proteins predictable. IDPs/IDPRs possess large hydrodynamic volumes, low contents of ordered secondary structure, and are characterized by high structural heterogeneity. They are very flexible, but some may undergo disorder to order transitions in the presence of natural ligands. The degree of these structural rearrangements varies over a very wide range. IDPs/IDPRs are tightly controlled under the normal conditions and have numerous specific functions that complement functions of ordered proteins and domains. When lacking proper control, they have multiple roles in pathogenesis of various human diseases. Gaining structural and functional information about these proteins is a challenge, since they do not typically “freeze” while their “pictures are taken.” However, despite or perhaps because of the experimental challenges, these fuzzy objects with fuzzy structures and fuzzy functions are among the most interesting targets for modern protein research. This review briefly summarizes some of the recent advances in this exciting field and considers some of the basic lessons learned from the analysis of physics, chemistry, and biology of IDPs.     

Molecular recognition of structurally disordered Pro/Ala-rich sequences (PAS) by antibodies involves an Ala residue at the hot spot of the epitope

Pro/Ala-rich sequences (PAS) are polypeptides that were developed as a biological alternative to poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) to generate biopharmaceuticals with extended plasma half-life. Like PEG, PAS polypeptides are conformationally disordered and show high solubility in water. Devoid of any charged or prominent hydrophobic side chains, these biosynthetic polymers represent an extreme case of intrinsically disordered proteins. Despite lack of immunogenicity of PAS tags in numerous animal studies we now succeeded in generating monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against three different PAS versions. To this end, mice were immunized with a PAS#1, P/A#1 or APSA 40mer peptide conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin as highly immunogenic carrier protein. In each case, one MAb with high binding activity and specificity towards a particular PAS motif was obtained. The apparent affinity was strongly dependent on the avidity effect and most pronounced for the bivalent MAb when interacting with a long PAS repeat. X-ray structural analysis of four representative anti-PAS Fab fragments in complex with their cognate PAS epitope peptides revealed interactions dominated by hydrogen bond networks involving the peptide backbone as well as multiple Van der Waals contacts arising from intimate shape complementarity. Surprisingly, Ala, the L-amino acid with the smallest side chain, emerged as a crucial feature for epitope recognition, contributing specific contacts at the center of the paratope in several anti-PAS complexes. Apart from these insights into how antibodies can recognize feature-less peptides without secondary structure, the MAbs characterized in this study offer valuable reagents for the preclinical and clinical development of PASylated biologics.     

A new approach to the design of uniquely folded thermally stable proteins

A new computer program (CORE) is described that predicts core hydrophobic sequences of predetermined target protein structures. A novel scoring function is employed, which for the first time incorporates parameters directly correlated to free energies of unfolding (deltaGu), melting temperatures (Tm), and cooperativity. Metropolis-driven simulated annealing and low-temperature Monte Carlo sampling are used to optimize this score, generating sequences predicted to yield uniquely folded, stable proteins with cooperative unfolding transitions. The hydrophobic core residues of four natural proteins were predicted using CORE with the backbone structure and solvent exposed residues as input. In the two smaller proteins tested (Gbeta1, 11 core amino acids; 434 cro, 10 core amino acids), the native sequence was regenerated as well as the sequence of known thermally stable variants that exhibit cooperative denaturation transitions. Previously designed sequences of variants with lower thermal stability and weaker cooperativity were not predicted. In the two larger proteins tested (myoglobin, 32 core amino acids; methionine aminopeptidase, 63 core amino acids), sequences with corresponding side-chain conformations remarkably similar to that of native were predicted.     

Power Law Distribution Defines Structural Disorder as a Structural Element Directly Linked with Function

Although intrinsically disordered proteins are prevalent and functionally important, it has never been asked whether structural disorder should be considered as a separate structural category on its own or merely as a lack of secondary and/or tertiary structure. We address this issue by showing that its length distribution in the human proteome follows a power law, with many short regions but also a significant incidence of very long disordered regions. This behavior is in sharp contrast with that of conventional secondary structural elements and is highly reminiscent of the distribution of tertiary structural units in proteins. We interpret this finding by the direct functional involvement of disorder, which distinguishes it from secondary structural elements and endows it with tertiary structural attributes.     

Natively unfolded proteins: a point where biology waits for physics

The experimental material accumulated in the literature on the conformational behavior of intrinsically unstructured (natively unfolded) proteins was analyzed. Results of this analysis showed that these proteins do not possess uniform structural properties, as expected for members of a single thermodynamic entity. Rather, these proteins may be divided into two structurally different groups: intrinsic coils, and premolten globules. Proteins from the first group have hydrodynamic dimensions typical of random coils in poor solvent and do not possess any (or almost any) ordered secondary structure. Proteins from the second group are essentially more compact, exhibiting some amount of residual secondary structure, although they are still less dense than native or molten globule proteins. An important feature of the intrinsically unstructured proteins is that they undergo disorder-order transition during or prior to their biological function. In this respect, the Protein Quartet model, with function arising from four specific conformations (ordered forms, molten globules, premolten globules, and random coils) and transitions between any two of the states, is discussed.     

Structural divergence is more extensive than sequence divergence for a family of intrinsically disordered proteins

The p53 transactivation domain (p53TAD) is an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) domain that undergoes coupled folding and binding when interacting with partner proteins like the E3 ligase, MDM2, and the 70 kDa subunit of replication protein A, RPA70. The secondary structure and dynamics of six closely related mammalian homologues of p53TAD were investigated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Differences in both transient secondary structure and backbone dynamics were observed for the homologues. Many of these differences were localized to the binding sites for MDM2 and RPA70. The amount of transient helical secondary structure observed for the MDM2 binding site was lower for the dog and mouse homologues, compared with human, and the amount of transient helical secondary structure observed for the RPA70 binding site was higher for guinea pig and rabbit, compared with human. Differences in the amount of transient helical secondary structure observed for the MDM2 binding site were directly related to amino acid substitutions occurring on the solvent exposed side of the amphipathic helix that forms during the p53TAD/MDM2 interaction. Differences in the amount of transient helical secondary structure were not as easily explained for the RPA70 binding site because of its extensive sequence divergence. Clustering analysis shows that the divergence in the transient secondary structure of the p53TAD homologues exceeds the amino acid sequence divergence. In contrast, strong correlations were observed between the backbone dynamics of the homologues and the sequence identity matrix, suggesting that the dynamic behavior of IDPs is a conserved evolutionary feature. Proteins 2013; 81:1686–1698. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Elastic Protein-Based Polymers a Step Towards Plasticity: Thermal Stability of Glu-Containing Co-Polypeptides as Analyzed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Plastic protein-based polymers with the same conformational potential, but with different degree of thermal stability have been synthesized and thermally characterized by differential scanning calorimetry to provide the conception of behavior of thermoplasticity. Dramatic increase in the temperature between melting and decomposition transitions has been observed, upon inclusion of glutamic acid residue into the hydrophobic sequence of FVGVP. Glu-containing co-polymers of IVGVP showed a markedly different behavior by exhibiting exothermic crystallization transition before melting shows the typical thermoplasticity. Secondary structure in trifluoroethanol for all the polymers show, a well behaved α-helix as evident from the circular dichroism studies, in association with a significant amount of random structure contributes to extended stability.     

Molecular cloning of protein-based polymers

Protein-based biopolymers have become a promising class of materials for both biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, as they have well-defined molecular weights, monomer compositions, as well as tunable chemical, biological, and mechanical properties. Using standard molecular biology tools, it is possible to design and construct genes encoding artificial proteins or protein-based polymers containing multiple repeats of amino acid sequences. This article reviews some of the traditional methods used for constructing DNA duplexes encoding these repeat-containing genes, including monomer generation, concatemerization, iterative oligomerization, and seamless cloning. A facile and versatile method, called modules of degenerate codons (MDC), which uses PCR and codon degeneracy to overcome some of the disadvantages of traditional methods, is introduced. Re-engineering of the random coil spacer domain of a bioactive protein, WPT2-3R, is used to demonstrate the utility of the MDC method. MDC re-constructed coding sequences facilitate further manipulations, such as insertion, deletion, and swapping of various sequence modules. A summary of some promising emerging techniques for synthesizing repetitive sequence-containing artificial proteins is also provided.     

Three reasons protein disorder analysis makes more sense in the light of collagen

We have identified that the collagen helix has the potential to be disruptive to analyses of intrinsically disordered proteins. The collagen helix is an extended fibrous structure that is both promiscuous and repetitive. Whilst its sequence is predicted to be disordered, this type of protein structure is not typically considered as intrinsic disorder. Here, we show that collagen‐encoding proteins skew the distribution of exon lengths in genes. We find that previous results, demonstrating that exons encoding disordered regions are more likely to be symmetric, are due to the abundance of the collagen helix. Other related results, showing increased levels of alternative splicing in disorder‐encoding exons, still hold after considering collagen‐containing proteins. Aside from analyses of exons, we find that the set of proteins that contain collagen significantly alters the amino acid composition of regions predicted as disordered. We conclude that research in this area should be conducted in the light of the collagen helix.     

固有无序蛋白研究进展及其对细胞胁迫耐受性的影响

固有无序蛋白(intrinsically disordered proteins,IDPs)是指在生理条件下缺乏有序稳定的高级结构,整体或局部不折叠,但能够参与多种生物学过程、行使特定生物学功能的一类蛋白质.固有无序蛋白决定了其不同于经典蛋白质"序列-结构-功能"的功能范式,丰富了蛋白质"结构-功能"的多样性.固有无序...     

An N-terminal, 830 residues intrinsically disordered region of the cytoskeleton-regulatory protein supervillin contains Myosin II- and F-actin-binding sites

Supervillin, the largest member of the villin/gelsolin family, is a cytoskeleton regulating, peripheral membrane protein. Supervillin increases cell motility and promotes invasive activity in tumors. Major cytoskeletal interactors, including filamentous actin and myosin II, bind within the unique supervillin amino terminus, amino acids 1–830. The structural features of this key region of the supervillin polypeptide are unknown. Here, we utilize circular dichroism and bioinformatics sequence analysis to demonstrate that the N-terminal part of supervillin forms an extended intrinsically disordered region (IDR). Our combined data indicate that the N-terminus of human and bovine supervillin sequences (positions 1–830) represents an IDR, which is the largest IDR known to date in the villin/gelsolin family. Moreover, this result suggests a potentially novel mechanism of regulation of myosin II and F-actin via the intrinsically disordered N-terminal region of hub protein supervillin.     

Intrinsically disordered electronegative clusters improve stability and binding specificity of RNA-binding proteins

RNA-binding proteins play crucial roles in various cellular functions and contain abundant disordered protein regions. The disordered regions in RNA-binding proteins are rich in repetitive sequences, such as poly-K/R, poly-N/Q, poly-A, and poly-G residues. Our bioinformatic analysis identified a largely neglected repetitive sequence family we define as electronegative clusters (ENCs) that contain acidic residues and/or phosphorylation sites. The abundance and length of ENCs exceed other known repetitive sequences. Despite their abundance, the functions of ENCs in RNA-binding proteins are still elusive. To investigate the impacts of ENCs on protein stability, RNA-binding affinity, and specificity, we selected one RNA-binding protein, the ribosomal biogenesis factor 15 (Nop15), as a model. We found that the Nop15 ENC increases protein stability and inhibits nonspecific RNA binding, but minimally interferes with specific RNA binding. To investigate the effect of ENCs on sequence specificity of RNA binding, we grafted an ENC to another RNA-binding protein, Ser/Arg-rich splicing factor 3. Using RNA Bind-n-Seq, we found that the engineered ENC inhibits disparate RNA motifs differently, instead of weakening all RNA motifs to the same extent. The motif site directly involved in electrostatic interaction is more susceptible to the ENC inhibition. These results suggest that one of functions of ENCs is to regulate RNA binding via electrostatic interaction. This is consistent with our finding that ENCs are also overrepresented in DNA-binding proteins, whereas underrepresented in halophiles, in which nonspecific nucleic acid binding is inhibited by high concentrations of salts.     

Organism complexity anti-correlates with proteomic beta-aggregation propensity

We introduce a novel approach to estimate differences in the beta-aggregation potential of eukaryotic proteomes. The approach is based on a statistical analysis of the beta-aggregation propensity of polypeptide segments, which is calculated by an equation derived from first principles using the physicochemical properties of the natural amino acids. Our analysis reveals a significant decreasing trend of the overall beta-aggregation tendency with increasing organism complexity and longevity. A comparison with randomized proteomes shows that natural proteomes have a higher degree of polarization in both low and high beta-aggregation prone sequences. The former originates from the requirement of intrinsically disordered proteins, whereas the latter originates from the necessity of proteins with a stable folded structure.     

DISOselect: Disorder predictor selection at the protein level

The intense interest in the intrinsically disordered proteins in the life science community, together with the remarkable advancements in predictive technologies, have given rise to the development of a large number of computational predictors of intrinsic disorder from protein sequence. While the growing number of predictors is a positive trend, we have observed a considerable difference in predictive quality among predictors for individual proteins. Furthermore, variable predictor performance is often inconsistent between predictors for different proteins, and the predictor that shows the best predictive performance depends on the unique properties of each protein sequence. We propose a computational approach, DISOselect, to estimate the predictive performance of 12 selected predictors for individual proteins based on their unique sequence‐derived properties. This estimation informs the users about the expected predictive quality for a selected disorder predictor and can be used to recommend methods that are likely to provide the best quality predictions. Our solution does not depend on the results of any disorder predictor; the estimations are made based solely on the protein sequence. Our solution significantly improves predictive performance, as judged with a test set of 1,000 proteins, when compared to other alternatives. We have empirically shown that by using the recommended methods the overall predictive performance for a given set of proteins can be improved by a statistically significant margin. DISOselect is freely available for non‐commercial users through the webserver at http://biomine.cs.vcu.edu/servers/DISOselect/ .     

Identification of a "glycine-loop"-like coiled structure in the 34 AA Pro,Gly,Met repeat domain of the biomineral-associated protein,PM27

Fracture resistance in biomineralized structures has been linked to the presence of proteins, some of which possess sequences that are associated with elastic behavior. One such protein superfamily, the Pro,Gly-rich sea urchin intracrystalline spicule matrix proteins, form protein-protein supramolecular assemblies that modify the microstructure and fracture-resistant properties of the calcium carbonate mineral phase within embryonic sea urchin spicules and adult sea urchin spines. In this report, we detail the identification of a repetitive keratin-like "glycine-loop"- or coil-like structure within the 34-AA (AA: amino acid) N-terminal domain, (PGMG)(8)PG, of the spicule matrix protein, PM27. The identification of this repetitive structural motif was accomplished using two capped model peptides: a 9-AA sequence, GPGMGPGMG, and a 34-AA peptide representing the entire motif. Using CD, NMR spectrometry, and molecular dynamics simulated annealing/minimization simulations, we have determined that the 9-AA model peptide adopts a loop-like structure at pH 7.4. The structure of the 34-AA polypeptide resembles a coil structure consisting of repeating loop motifs that do not exhibit long-range ordering. Given that loop structures have been associated with protein elastic behavior and protein motion, it is plausible that the 34-AA Pro,Gly,Met repeat sequence motif in PM27 represents a putative elastic or mobile domain.     

Beta turn propensity and a model polymer scaling exponent identify intrinsically disordered phase-separating proteins

The complex cellular milieu can spontaneously demix, or phase separate, in a process controlled in part by intrinsically disordered (ID) proteins. A protein''s propensity to phase separate is thought to be driven by a preference for protein–protein over protein–solvent interactions. The hydrodynamic size of monomeric proteins, as quantified by the polymer scaling exponent (v), is driven by a similar balance. We hypothesized that mean v, as predicted by protein sequence, would be smaller for proteins with a strong propensity to phase separate. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed protein databases containing subsets of proteins that are folded, disordered, or disordered and known to spontaneously phase separate. We find that the phase-separating disordered proteins, on average, had lower calculated values of v compared with their non-phase-separating counterparts. Moreover, these proteins had a higher sequence-predicted propensity for β-turns. Using a simple, surface area-based model, we propose a physical mechanism for this difference: transient β-turn structures reduce the desolvation penalty of forming a protein-rich phase and increase exposure of atoms involved in π/sp² valence electron interactions. By this mechanism, β-turns could act as energetically favored nucleation points, which may explain the increased propensity for turns in ID regions (IDRs) utilized biologically for phase separation. Phase-separating IDRs, non-phase-separating IDRs, and folded regions could be distinguished by combining v and β-turn propensity. Finally, we propose a new algorithm, ParSe (partition sequence), for predicting phase-separating protein regions, and which is able to accurately identify folded, disordered, and phase-separating protein regions based on the primary sequence.