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Cell-free production and characterisation of human uncoupling protein 1–3
Authors:Etienne Rebuffet  Anna Frick  Michael Järvå  Susanna Törnroth-Horsefield
Institution:1. Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Box 462, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden;2. Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Centre for Molecular Protein Science, Lund University, Box 124, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Abstract:The uncoupling proteins (UCPs) leak protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane, thus uncoupling the proton gradient from ATP synthesis. The main known physiological role for this is heat generation by UCP1 in brown adipose tissue. However, UCPs are also believed to be important for protection against reactive oxygen species, fine-tuning of metabolism and have been suggested to be involved in disease states such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.Structural studies of UCPs have long been hampered by difficulties in sample preparation with neither expression in yeast nor refolding from inclusion bodies in E. coli yielding sufficient amounts of pure and stable protein. In this study, we have developed a protocol for cell-free expression of human UCP1, 2 and 3, resulting in 1 mg pure protein per 20 mL of expression media. Lauric acid, a natural UCP ligand, significantly improved protein thermal stability and was therefore added during purification. Secondary structure characterisation using circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed the proteins to consist of mostly α-helices, as expected. All three UCPs were able to bind GDP, a well-known physiological inhibitor, as shown by the Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) technique, suggesting that the proteins are in a natively folded state.
Keywords:Cell-free expression  Membrane protein  Mitochondrial carrier  Uncoupling protein
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