• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.3830-3833
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• 2010

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.624-629
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• 2009

It is the most important step to screen soluble and insoluble proteins when we attempt to improve the solubility of recombinant proteins through directed evolution approach. Here we show that the solubility of a recombinant protein in vivo can be examined by expressing the recombinant protein with beta-lactamase as a fusion partner. First we constructed an expression system which can produc a fusion protein with the C-terminal of beta-lactamase. Two soluble proteins, i.e. adenine deaminase and aspartate aminotransferase, and insoluble GlcNAc-2-epimerase were cloned into the developed expression vector, respectively. We investigated the effect of the expression of the three recombinant fusion proteins on the growth of E. coli, and confirmed that the solubilities of the recombinant proteins correlated with cell growth rates.

• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.195-201
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• 2000

A human gene has been reported that may encode the enzyme acetohydroxyacid synthase. Previously this enzyme was thought to be absent from animals although it is present in plants and many microorganisms. In plants, this enzyme is the target of a number of commercial herbicides and the use of these compounds may need to be reassessed if the human enzyme exists and proves to be susceptible to inhibition. Here we report the construction of several plasmid vectors containing the cDNA sequence for this protein, and their expression in Escherichia coli. High levels of expression were observed, but most of the protein proved to be insoluble. The small amounts of soluble protein contained little or no acetohydroxyacid synthase activity. Attempts to refold the insoluble protein were successful insofar as the protein became soluble. However, the refolded protein did not gain any acetohydroxyacid synthase activity. In vivo complementation tests of an E. coli mutant produced no evidence that the protein is active. Incorrect folding, or the lack of another subunit, may explain the data but we favor the interpretation that this gene does not encode an acetohydroxyacid synthase.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2011

Insect lysozymes are basic, cationic proteins synthesized in fat body and hemocytes in response to bacterial infections and depolymerize the bacterial cell wall. The c-type lysozyme of the insect Spodoptera litura (SLLyz) is a single polypeptide chain of 121 residues with four disulfide bridges and 17 rare codons and is approximately 15 kDa. The full-length SLLyz cDNA is 1039 bp long with a poly(A) tail, and contains an open reading frame of 426 bp long (including the termination codon), flanked by a 54 bp long 5' UTR and a 559 bp long 3' UTR. As a host for the production of high-level recombinant proteins, E. coli is used most commonly because of its low cost and short generation time. However, the soluble expression of heterologous proteins in E. coli is not trivial, especially for disulfide-bonded proteins. In order to prevent inclusion body formation, GST was selected as a fusion partner to enhance the solubility of recombinant protein, and fused to the amplified products encoding mature SLLyz. The expression vector pGEX-4T-1/rSLLyz was then transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS for soluble expression of rSLLyz, and the soluble fusion protein was purified successfully. Inhibition zone assay demonstrated that rSLLyz showed antibacterial activity against B. megaterium. These results demonstrate that the GST fusion expression system in E. coli described in this study is efficient and inexpensive in producing a disulfide-bonded rSLLyz in soluble, active form, and suggest that the insect lysozyme is an interesting system for future structural and functional studies.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.171-179
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• 2000

The lengths of thick and thin filaments in the sarcomeres of most vertebrate skeletal muscles are precisely regulated and are important structural parameters in understanding muscle contraction. Nebulin is a usually large protein that spans the whole length of thin filaments in the sarcomeres of skeletal muscles. In this paper we used SDS-PAGE and immunoblot to identify nebulin isoform proteins in muscle and non-muscle tissues. We prepared embryonic chicken tissues including skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, brain, liver to compare nebulin isoform proteins. The proteins were divided into soluble and insoluble fraction. As a result, we identified tissue specific expression of various nebulin isoform proteins in muscle and non-muscle tissues of chicken. Nebulin was detected in skeletal muscle of adult chicken about 500 kDa. Nebulett was expressed in cardiac muscle of embryonic and adult chicken about 107 kDa. A giant protein with molecular mass of about 380 kDa was identified in brain of non-muscle of chicken. This giant protein was detected in the soluble fraction of chicken embryo. The unequal distribution of the nebulin isoform proteins suggests tissue specific regulation of the isoform expression and indicates a functional specialization of the encoded isoform subtypes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1471-1478
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• 2022

2'-Fucosyllactose (2'-FL), the most abundant fucosylated oligosaccharide in human milk, has multiple beneficial effects on human health. However, its biosynthesis by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli is often hampered owing to the insolubility and instability of α-1,2-fucosyltransferase (the rate-limiting enzyme). In this study, we aimed to enhance 2'-FL production by increasing the expression of soluble α-1,2-fucosyltransferase from Helicobacter pylori (FucT2). Because structural information regarding FucT2 has not been unveiled, we decided to improve the expression of soluble FucT2 in E. coli via directed evolution using a protein solubility biosensor that links protein solubility to antimicrobial resistance. For such a system to be viable, the activity of kanamycin resistance protein (Kan^R) should be dependent on FucT2 solubility. Kan^R was fused to the C-terminus of mutant libraries of FucT2, which were generated using a combination of error-prone PCR and DNA shuffling. Notably, one round of the directed evolution process, which consisted of mutant library generation and selection based on kanamycin resistance, resulted in a significant increase in the expression level of soluble FucT2. As a result, a batch fermentation with the ΔL M15 pBCGW strain, expressing the FucT2 mutant (F#1-5) isolated from the first round of the directed evolution process, resulted in the production of 0.31 g/l 2'-FL with a yield of 0.22 g 2'-FL/g lactose, showing 1.72- and 1.51-fold increase in the titer and yield, respectively, compared to those of the control strain. The simple and powerful method developed in this study could be applied to enhance the solubility of other unstable enzymes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2383-2386
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• 2013

Senescence marker protein 30 (SMP30), a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated antigen, was earlier shown by our research group to be highly expressed in HCC paracancerous tissues, but have low levels in HCC tissues. In order to detect anti-SMP30 antibody in serum of HCC patients, we established pET30a-SMP30 and pColdIII-SMP30 expression systems in Escherichia coli. However, the expression product was mainly in the form of inclusion bodies. In this research, we used several combinations of chaperones, four molecular chaperone plasmids with pET30a-SMP30 and five molecular chaperone plasmids with pColdIII-SMP30 to increase the amount of soluble protein. Results showed that co-expression of HIS-SMP30 with pTf16, combined with the addition of osmosis-regulator, and a two-step expression resulted in the highest enhancement of solubility. A total of 175 cases of HCC serum were studied by ELISA to detect anti-SMP30 antibody with recombinant SMP30 protein. Some 22 were positive and x2 two-sided tests all showed P>0.05, although it remained unclear whether there was a relationship between positive cases and clinical diagnostic data.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.274-278
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• 1993

Overproduced proteins in many cases result in forming insoluble inclusion bodies, and their formation might be due to high concentration of protein. To investigate how proteins become insoluble, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) and .betha.-lactamase were overproduced, and their solubilities and activities were determined. CAT was accumulated from 9 to 45% of total cellular protein in a fully soluble form without inclusion body formation. CAT specific activity was shown to be proportional to the amount of the protein produced. Moderately produced .betha.-lactamase by the phase T7 expression system at 30.deg.C comprised only mature forms in a soluble form. However, overproduced .betha.-lactamase at 37.deg.C became insoluble. Most precursor forms of .betha.-lactamase in the cytoplasm were insoluble, whereas majority of the mature forms in the periplasm space were soluble. Also, chaperone GroE proteins which assist proper protein folding and translocation did not increase .betha.-lactamase solubility significantly under the experimental condition. It seems that the formation of inclusion bodies in the cell is related to the nature of protein itself rather than just to high concentration of protein.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2008

To express an increased level of recombinant Mefp1 (marine mussel adhesive protein) in soluble form, we constructed expression vectors encoding truncated OmpA signal peptide-Mefp1 fusion proteins. OmpA signal peptide (OmpASP) is the 21 residue peptide fragment of the 23 residue OmpA signal sequence cleavable by signal peptidase I. We successfully produced increased levels of soluble recombinant Mefp1 (rMefp1) with various deletions of OmpASP, and found that the increased expression was caused by the increased pI of the N-terminus of the fusion proteins (${\geq}10.55$). All the OmpA signal peptide segments of 3-21 amino acids in length had the same pI value (10.55). Our results suggest that the pI value of the truncated OmpASP ($OmpASP_{tr}$) play an important role in directional signaling for the fusion protein, but we found no evidence for the presence of a secretion enhancer in OmpASP. For practical applications, we increased the expression of soluble rMefp1 with $OmpASP_{tr}$ peptides as directional signals, and obtained rMefp1 with the native amino terminus (nN-rMefp1) using an $OmpASP_{tr}$ Xa leader sequence that contains the recognition site for Xa protease.