• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.242-248
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• 2000

Phage display of proteins is a powerful tool for protein engineering since a vast library of sequences can be rapidly screened for a specific property. In this study, we develop da new phage display vector that was derived from a pET-25b(+) vector. The pET-25b(+) was modified in order that the expressed protein would have a T7-tag at the amino terminus and GpS (a major coat protein of M13 phage) at the carboxyl terminus. Another vector without the gp8 gene was also constructed. The newly developed phagemid vectors have several advantageous features. First, it is easy to examine whether or not the target proteins are functional and faithfully transported into the periplasmic space. This feature is due to the fact that recombinant proteins are produced abundantly in the pET system. Second, the T7-tag makes it possible to detect any target proteins that are displayed on the surface of filamentous bacteriophage. To verify the utility of the vector, the clones containing the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene as a target were examined. The result showed that the GST produced from the recombinant vector was successfully transported into the periplasmic space and had the anticipated enzyme activity. Western blot analysis using a T7-tag antibody also showed the presence of the target protein displayed on the surface of the phage. The phages prepared from the recombinant clones were able to bind to glutathione-Sepharose and then eluted with glutathione. These results showed that the new vectors developed in this study are useful for the phage display of proteins.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2010

Molecular farming is production of pharmaceutically and industrially important proteins in plants. Plants and plant cell culture systems have been used as bio-factory to produce recombinant proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, enzymes, vaccines, hormones, interleukins, commercial enzymes and etc. The terms molecular farming, biofarming, molecular pharming, phytomanufacturing, recombinant or plant-made industrials, planta-pharma, plant bioreactors, plant biofactory, and pharmaceutical gardening are used interchangeably. Molecular farming can provide safe and inexpensive pharmaceutical proteins as well as commercial ones. In spite of several advantages of molecular farming such as safety and inexpensive cost, there are also a couple of drawbacks in the existing technology. One of them is low expression level of target gene in plants, which has been improved by optimizing gene-based codon usage, screening of strong promoters, expression of transcription factors, subcellular targeting of target proteins, chloroplast transformation, and transient expression using viral expression system (magnifection). Some plant-based commercial proteins have already been in markets and more than twenty plant-based pharmaceuticals have been in clinical trials, from that we can expect that several plant-based pharmaceutical proteins will be seen in the markets in the near future.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.403-411
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• 2015

Plasmodium falciparum can invade all stages of red blood cells, while Plasmodium vivax can invade only reticulocytes. Although many P. vivax proteins have been discovered, their functions are largely unknown. Among them, P. vivax reticulocyte binding proteins (PvRBP1 and PvRBP2) recognize and bind to reticulocytes. Both proteins possess a C-terminal hydrophobic transmembrane domain, which drives adhesion to reticulocytes. PvRBP1 and PvRBP2 are large (>326 kDa), which hinders identification of the functional domains. In this study, the complete genome information of the P. vivax RBP family was thoroughly analyzed using a prediction server with bioinformatics data to predict B-cell epitope domains. Eleven pvrbp family genes that included 2 pseudogenes and 9 full or partial length genes were selected and used to express recombinant proteins in a wheat germ cell-free system. The expressed proteins were used to evaluate the humoral immune response with vivax malaria patients and healthy individual serum samples by protein microarray. The recombinant fragments of 9 PvRBP proteins were successfully expressed; the soluble proteins ranged in molecular weight from 16 to 34 kDa. Evaluation of the humoral immune response to each recombinant PvRBP protein indicated a high antigenicity, with 38-88% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Of them, N-terminal parts of PvRBP2c (PVX_090325-1) and PvRBP2 like partial A (PVX_090330-1) elicited high antigenicity. In addition, the PvRBP2-like homologue B (PVX_116930) fragment was newly identified as high antigenicity and may be exploited as a potential antigenic candidate among the PvRBP family. The functional activity of the PvRBP family on merozoite invasion remains unknown.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2008

Expression of olive flounder hepcidin I (HepI) fused with truncated OmpA signal peptides ($OmpASP_{tr}$) as directional signals does not produce soluble fusion proteins. However, by inserting amino acid segments (xxx) varying in pI and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity into a leader sequence containing a truncated OmpASP ($OmpASP_{tr}$) and a factor Xa cleavage site (Xa) [$OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$], we were able in some cases to express soluble recombinant HepI. Soluble expression of the recombinant protein strongly correlated with (xxx) insertions of high pI and hydrophilicity. Therefore, we modified the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ sequence by inserting Arg and Lys into (xxx) to increase the hydrophilicity of the signal peptide region. These modifications enhanced the expression of soluble recombinant HepI. Hydropathic profile analysis of the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ HepI fusion proteins revealed that the transmembrane-like domains derived from the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ sequence were larger than the internal positively charged domain native to HepI. It should therefore be possible to overcome the obstacle of internal positively charged domains to obtain soluble expression of recombinant proteins by monitoring the hydrophilicity and hydropathic profile of the signal peptide region using a computer program.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.170-175
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• 2011

This study was carried out for the molecular level identification of recombinant protein vaccine efficacy, by oral feeding against white spot syndrome virus infection, with the comparison of viral mRNA transcriptional levels in shrimp cells. For the determination of WSSV dilution ratio for the vaccination experiment by oral feeding, in vivo virus titration was carried out using different virus dilutions of virus stock ($1{\times}10^2$, $2{\times}10^2$, and $1{\times}10^3$). Among the dilution ratios, $2{\times}10^2$ diluted WSSV stock was chosen as the optimal condition because this dilution showed 90% mortality at 10 days after virus injection. Recombinant viral proteins, rVP19 and rVP28, produced as protein vaccines were delivered in shrimps by oral feeding. The cumulative mortalities of the shrimps vaccinated with rVP19 and rVP28 at 21 days after the challenge with WSSV were 66.7% and 41.7%, respectively. This indicates that rVP28 showed a better protective effect against WSSV in shrimp than rVP19. Through the comparison of mRNA transcriptional levels of viral genes from collected shrimp organ samples, it was confirmed that viral gene transcriptions of vaccinated shrimps were delayed for 4~10 days compared with those of unvaccinated shrimps. Protection from WSSV infection in shrimp by the vaccination with recombinant viral proteins could be accomplished by the prevention of entry of WSSV due to the shrimp immune system activated by recombinant protein vaccines.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.280-287
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• 2015

Current influenza vaccines are produced in embryonated chicken eggs. However, egg-based vaccines have various problems. To address these problems, recombinant protein vaccines have been developed as new vaccine candidates. Unfortunately, recombinant proteins frequently encounter aggregation and low stability during their biogenesis. It has been previously demonstrated that recombinantly expressed proteins can be greatly stabilized with high solubility by fusing stabilizing peptide (SP) derived from the C-terminal acidic tail of human synuclein (ATS). To investigate whether SP fusion proteins can induce protective immunity in mice, we produced influenza HA and SP fusion protein using a baculovirus expression system. In in vitro tests, SP-fused recombinant HA1 (SP-rHA1) was shown to be more stable than recombinant HA1 (rHA1). Mice were immunized intramuscularly with baculovirus-expressed rHA1 protein or SP-rHA1 protein ($2{\mu}g/mouse$) formulated with aluminum hydroxide. Antibody responses were determined by ELISA and hemagglutination inhibition assay. We observed that SP-rHA1 immunization elicited HA-specific antibody responses that were comparable to rHA1 immunization. These results indicate that fusion of SP to rHA1 does not negatively affect the immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate. Therefore, it is possible to apply SP fusion technology to develop stable recombinant protein vaccines with high solubility.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.275-280
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• 1995

The respiratory burst oxidase of neutrophils is a multicomponent enzyme, domant in resting cells, that catalyzes the reduction of oxygen to $O_{2}^{-}$ at the expense of NADPH. In the resting neutrophil, some of the components of the oxidase, including proteins p47 and p67, are in the cytosol, while the rest are in the plasma membrane. Recent evidence has suggested that at least some of the cytosolic oxidase components exist as a complex. The cytosolic complex with a molecular weight of ~240 kDa was found to bind to blue-agarose and 2',5'-ADP-agarose, which recognize nucleotide requiring enzymes. In order to identify the nucleotide binding component of the cytosolic complex we purified recombinant p47 and p67 fusion proteins using the pGEX system. Pure recombinant p47 was retained completely on 2',5'-ADP-agarose, whereas pure recombinant p67 did not bind to these affinity beads. On the basis of these results, we infer that p47 may contain the nucleotide binding site.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 1997

Porcine transforming growth factor-$\beta$1 (TGF-$\beta$1) was expressed in Escherichia coli using cDNA of TGF-$\beta$1 and glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion vector pGEX-1$\lambda$T. An ApoI-Tth111I fragment of cDNA which correspond to the amino acid residues from 123 to 390 of the precursor TGF-$\beta$1 was inserted into EcoRI-Tth111I digested pGEM#-l$\lambda$T and the recombined plasmid was named pGET-12. Gene products from the cloned regions of the recombinant plasmids pGET-12 was not detected in soluble fraction of cell free extract but detected in insoluble fraction. The solubilization of insoluble gene product was achieved by the treatment of N-laurylsarcosine. Molecular weight of partially purified proteins determined by electrophoresis was same as expected from cloned fragment. The ELISA test results of the purified proteins showed that immunologically detectable epitope was preserved in recombinant protein.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.28 no.B
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• pp.59-63
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• 2008

Rapid production of therapeutic proteins such as angiostatin and endostatin angiogenic inhibititors has been highly demanded for cancer treatment. In this regard, recombinant human angiostatin and endostatin were successfully expressed as soluble forms by maltose binding protein (MBP)-mediated fusion expression in Escherichia coli. PCR amplified, angiostatin and endostatin genes from human placenta cDNA library were inserted into an expression vector pMAL-c2e to construct prokaryotic expression vectors, pMAL-c2e/AS and pMAL-c2e/ES, respectively. Recombinant angiostatin and endostatin were efficiently expressed in E. coli origami (DE3) after IPTG induction and protein expression were confirmed by SDS-PAGE analyses. The expressed recombinant proteins were purified near homogenity using an amylose affinty column chromatography. In contrast that previous E. coli expressions were all insoluble, our results first time demonstrated that MBP fused human angiostatin and endostatin were soluble in E. coli.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.635-638
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• 2004

An ATP-binding-cassette (ABC) transporter gene in the cephabacin biosynthetic gene cluster of Lysobacter lactamgenus was characterized. The amplified orf10 (cpbJ) gene was subcloned into pET-28a(+) vector and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) strain by 0.5 mM IPTG at $30^{\circ}C$. The membrane fraction of recombinant E. coli cells was separated by ultracentrifugation, and solubilized using 2.5% octyl-$\beta$-D-glucoside. Using the solubilized membrane fraction, the artificial proteoliposomes were reconstituted and analyzed for the biological activity of CpbJ protein. Upon measuring ATPase activity, the proteoliposome made from recombinant E. coli membrane proteins showed slightly higher activity than that from host E. coli membrane proteins. In the measurement of membrane transport activity, the reconstituted proteoliposome of recombinant E. coli membrane proteins exhibited higher activity when both substrates of cephalosporin C and L-Ala-L-Ser were applied, compared to the case of cephalosporin C or L-Ala-L-Ser only. It implies that the CpbJ protein is an ABC transporter secreting cephabacin antibiotics synthesized in cytoplasm.