scholarly journals Robust Cell-Free Expression of Sub-Pathological and Pathological Huntingtin Exon-1 for NMR Studies. General Approaches for the Isotopic Labeling of Low-Complexity Proteins

Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1458
Author(s):  
Anna Morató ◽  
Carlos A. Elena-Real ◽  
Matija Popovic ◽  
Aurélie Fournet ◽  
Karen Zhang ◽  
...  

The high-resolution structural study of huntingtin exon-1 (HttEx1) has long been hampered by its intrinsic properties. In addition to being prone to aggregate, HttEx1 contains low-complexity regions (LCRs) and is intrinsically disordered, ruling out several standard structural biology approaches. Here, we use a cell-free (CF) protein expression system to robustly and rapidly synthesize (sub-) pathological HttEx1. The open nature of the CF reaction allows the application of different isotopic labeling schemes, making HttEx1 amenable for nuclear magnetic resonance studies. While uniform and selective labeling facilitate the sequential assignment of HttEx1, combining CF expression with nonsense suppression allows the site-specific incorporation of a single labeled residue, making possible the detailed investigation of the LCRs. To optimize CF suppression yields, we analyze the expression and suppression kinetics, revealing that high concentrations of loaded suppressor tRNA have a negative impact on the final reaction yield. The optimized CF protein expression and suppression system is very versatile and well suited to produce challenging proteins with LCRs in order to enable the characterization of their structure and dynamics.

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shili Yang ◽  
Lijuan Zhao ◽  
Ruipeng Ma ◽  
Wei Fang ◽  
Jia Hu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The relatively low infectivity of baculoviruses to their host larvae limits their use as insecticidal agents on a larger scale. In the present study, a novel strategy was developed to efficiently embed foreign proteins into Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) occlusion bodies (OBs) to achieve stable expression of foreign proteins and to improve viral infectivity. A recombinant AcMNPV bacmid was constructed by expressing the 150-amino-acid (aa) N-terminal segment of polyhedrin under the control of the p10 promoter and the remaining C-terminal 95-aa segment under the control of the polyhedrin promoter. The recombinant virus formed OBs in Spodoptera frugiperda 9 cells, in which the occlusion-derived viruses were embedded in a manner similar to that for wild-type AcMNPV. Next, the 95-aa polyhedrin C terminus was fused to enhanced green fluorescent protein, and the recombinant AcMNPV formed fluorescent green OBs and was stably passaged in vitro and in vivo. The AcMNPV recombinants were further modified by fusing truncated Agrotis segetum granulovirus enhancin or truncated Cydia pomonella granulovirus ORF13 (GP37) to the C-terminal 95 aa of polyhedrin, and both recombinants were able to form normal OBs. Bioactivity assays indicated that the median lethal concentrations of these two AcMNPV recombinants were 3- to 5-fold lower than that of the control virus. These results suggest that embedding enhancing factors in baculovirus OBs by use of this novel technique may promote efficient and stable foreign protein expression and significantly improve baculovirus infectivity. IMPORTANCE Baculoviruses have been used as bioinsecticides for over 40 years, but their relatively low infectivity to their host larvae limits their use on a larger scale. It has been reported that it is possible to improve baculovirus infectivity by packaging enhancing factors within baculovirus occlusion bodies (OBs); however, so far, the packaging efficiency has been low. In this article, we describe a novel strategy for efficiently embedding foreign proteins into AcMNPV OBs by expressing N- and C-terminal (dimidiate) polyhedrin fragments (150 and 95 amino acids, respectively) as fusions to foreign proteins under the control of the p10 and polyhedrin promoters, respectively. When this strategy was used to embed an enhancing factor (enhancin or GP37) into the baculovirus OBs, 3- to 5-fold increases in baculoviral infectivity were observed. This novel strategy has the potential to create an efficient protein expression system and a highly efficient virus-based system for insecticide production in the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kounosuke Hayashi ◽  
Yusuke Tomozoe ◽  
Kenji Nagai ◽  
Kyoichi Matsuba ◽  
Masayuki Mitsumori ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Gustavo Bentim Góes ◽  
Antonio Carlos de Freitas ◽  
Oilita Pereira Ferraz ◽  
Tania Tassinari Rieger ◽  
José Ferreira dos Santos ◽  
...  

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilia Leisle ◽  
Rahul Chadda ◽  
John D Lueck ◽  
Daniel T Infield ◽  
Jason D Galpin ◽  
...  

A general method is described for the site-specific genetic encoding of cyanine dyes as non-canonical amino acids (Cy-ncAAs) into proteins. The approach relies on an improved technique for nonsense suppression with in vitro misacylated orthogonal tRNA. The data show that Cy-ncAAs (based on Cy3 and Cy5) are tolerated by the eukaryotic ribosome in cell-free and whole-cell environments and can be incorporated into soluble and membrane proteins. In the context of the Xenopus laevis oocyte expression system, this technique yields ion channels with encoded Cy-ncAAs that are trafficked to the plasma membrane where they display robust function and distinct fluorescent signals as detected by TIRF microscopy. This is the first demonstration of an encoded cyanine dye as a ncAA in a eukaryotic expression system and opens the door for the analysis of proteins with single-molecule resolution in a cellular environment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shasha Chong ◽  
Thomas G. W. Graham ◽  
Claire Dugast-Darzacq ◽  
Gina M. Dailey ◽  
Xavier Darzacq ◽  
...  

Gene activation by mammalian transcription factors (TFs) requires dynamic, multivalent, and selective interactions of their intrinsically disordered low-complexity domains (LCDs), but how such interactions mediate transcription remains unclear. It has been proposed that extensive LCD-LCD interactions culminating in liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of TFs is the dominant mechanism underlying transactivation. Here, we investigated how tuning the amount and localization of LCD-LCD interactions in vivo affects transcription of endogenous human genes. Quantitative single-cell and single-molecule imaging reveals that the oncogenic TF EWS/FLI1 requires a finely tuned range of LCD-LCD interactions to efficiently activate target genes. Modest or more dramatic increases in LCD-LCD interactions toward putative LLPS repress EWS/FLI1-driven transcription in patient cells. Likewise, ectopically creating LCD-LCD interactions to sequester EWS/FLI1 into a bona fide LLPS compartment, the nucleolus, inhibits EWS/FLI1-driven transcription and oncogenic transformation. Our findings reveal fundamental principles underlying LCD-mediated transcription and suggest mislocalizing specific LCD-LCD interactions as a novel therapeutic strategy for targeting disease-causing TFs.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie A. Greig ◽  
Tu Anh Nguyen ◽  
Michelle Lee ◽  
Alex S. Holehouse ◽  
Ammon E. Posey ◽  
...  

AbstractLow-complexity protein domains promote the formation of various biomolecular condensates. However, in many cases, the precise sequence features governing condensate formation and identity remain unclear. Here, we investigate the role of intrinsically disordered mixed-charge domains (MCDs) in nuclear speckle condensation. Proteins composed exclusively of arginine/aspartic-acid dipeptide repeats undergo length-dependent condensation and speckle incorporation. Substituting arginine with lysine in synthetic and natural speckle-associated MCDs abolishes these activities, identifying a key role for multivalent contacts through arginine’s guanidinium ion. MCDs can synergise with a speckle-associated RNA recognition motif to promote speckle specificity and residence. MCD behaviour is tuneable through net-charge: increasing negative charge abolishes condensation and speckle incorporation. By contrast, increasing positive charge through arginine leads to enhanced condensation, speckle enlargement, decreased splicing factor mobility, and defective mRNA export. Together, these results identify key sequence determinants of MCD-promoted speckle condensation, and link the speckle’s dynamic material properties with function in mRNA processing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Hu ◽  
Shu ying FENG ◽  
Gaofeng Liang ◽  
Jingxia Du ◽  
Aifang Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Dunaliella salina (D. salina) has been exploited as a novel expression system for the field of genetic engineering. However, owing to the low or inconsistent expression of target proteins, it has been greatly restricted to practical production of recombinant proteins. Since the accurate gene editing function of CRISPR/Cas system, β-carotene hydroxylase gene was chosen as an example to explore D. salina application with the purpose of improving expression level of foreign genes. In this paper, based on pKSE401 backbone, three CRISPR/Cas9 binary vectors were constructed to targeting exon 1 and 3 of the β-carotene hydroxylase of D. salina CCAP19/18 (Dschyb). D. salina mutants were obtained by salt gradient transformation method, and the expression of Dschyb gene were identified through real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Moreover, carotenoids content was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography at different time points after high intensity treatment. Compared with wild type strains, the β-carotene levels of mutants showed a significant increase, nearly up to 1.4 μg/ml, and the levels of zeaxanthin decreased to various degrees in mutants. All the results provide a compelling evidence for targeted gene editing in D. salina. This study gave a first successful gene editing of D. salina which has a very important practical significance for increasing carotene yield and meeting realistic industry demand. Furthermore, it provides an approach to overcome the current obstacles of D. salina, and then gives a strong tool to facilitates the development and application of D. salina system.


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