Increase Your Probability of Success with Faster, Easier Protein Expression in E. coli Overview • • • • • • Common challenges when expressing recombinant proteins in E. coli Solutions and tools to help mitigate those challenges Examples & data Scaling your workflow for one or many targets Proteases for fusion tag removal Tips & best practices Common Expression and Purification Workflow Key challenges at each step • Time-consuming process • Multiple steps where process can “go wrong” • Many methods are not amenable to automation • Poor clone survival Cloning • Low expression levels • Low solubility (inclusion bodies) • Protein degradation or truncation • Poor cell viability with toxic targets • Non-optimized conditions Expression • Non-optimized purification strategies • Occluded purification tags • “False solubility” • Incomplete fusion tag cleavage Purification • • • • Truncated protein Mutated protein Insufficient yield Inactive protein Characterization Repeating steps & moving backward is costly Many Parameters to Test Example: trial and error is time-consuming • Two novel sequences from a rare microorganism • Some homology to a known enzymes family, but you have few clues as to how well they will express in recombinant form • You decide to express in E. coli and hedge your bets by trying a few different vectors and strains available in your lab – 2 inducible promoters of different strengths – 4 fusion partners that have worked with other targets – 2 expression strains • Two sequences x 2 promoters x 4 tags x 2 strains = 32 samples • Expands: – +/- induction – Total, soluble, insoluble – other parameters • Experiments can get big, very fast! How Can Protein Expression Go Wrong, and Why? Issue Low or no expression Inclusion body formation Inactive protein Possible Explanations Potential Solutions Protein is toxic to E. coli • Suppress basal induction, tightly control induction level • Reduce plasmid copy number • Express protein in inactive state Rare codons causing translational stalling • • • • Degradation • Slow production, reduce exposure to cellular proteases Improper folding causing low solubility • Fuse protein to solubility partners • Co-express molecular chaperones or add folding additives and cofactors to medium • Reduce production: modify RBS, tightly control induction level, reduce temperature, tune inducer concentration, inhibit T7 RNA polymerase Incorrect disulfide bond formation • Direct protein to periplasm • Use host with oxidative cytoplasmic environment Mutations in DNA sequence Incorrect or unremoved tag interferes with activity • • • • Lacking post-translational modifications or cofactors • Coexpress transferases, add cofactors • Switch expression host Optimize target sequence Use strains that supply limited tRNAs Increase cell density (biomass) before induction Add easily translatable n-terminal leader sequence Confirm plasmid sequence – promoter + target + fusion Use recA- strains to maintain stability in cell Use fresh transformants for expression Reduce plasmid copy number Tools • Tunable promoters • Engineered host strain (copy control) • Defined media, with glucose as carbon source • N-terminal fusion tags • Engineered host strains • Protease inhibitors • Engineered host strains • N-terminal fusion tags • Engineered host strains • Tunable promoters • Engineered host strains • Periplasmic export fusion tag • recA- host strains • Engineered host strain (copy control) • N-terminal fusion tags • Protease cleavage • Yeast, insect or mammalian systems Question #3 Poll Question What strategies do you use, to express a functional protein in E. coli? Choose all that apply. How Can the Expresso® Solubility and Expression Screening System Help? Problem Source Lucigen Solutions Low Solubility Enhance solubility with a panel of N-terminal fusion tags shown to increase solubility. Low expression due to codon bias Help overcome codon bias at the 5’ end of sequence with N-terminal fusion tags. Codon bias at 5’ end often stalls translation. Low expression due to protein or mRNA degradation Stabilize mRNA and protein with fusion tags. Low or no expression due to toxicity Tightly control expression levels with rhamnose promoter. Inactive or incorrect protein due to mutations, deletions, rearrangements RecA- strain used for cloning and expression. Expresso® Solubility and Expression Screening Optimized system for cloning and expression • Accura® High-Fidelity Polymerase for amplifying your target • Seven ready-to-use pSOL™ Vectors, each with a different fusion tag proven to enhance expression and solubility • E. cloni 10G Chemically Competent Cells for cloning and expression (same recA- strain) • SelecTEV™ Protease for fusion tag removal • Control insert (human GH1), primers for colony screening / sequencing • Reagents for induction of expression TEV Tag ENLYFQ G Target Protein Increase Your Probability of Success Safeguard your project from the very beginning • Increase likelihood of initial success – Screen 7 fusion partners to increase chances of soluble protein production – Use recA- strain to decrease recombination events • Scale the process for multiple targets – Minimize manipulation steps with easy-to-use protocol – Adapt cloning and expression easily to HTP methods – Utilize hands-free autoinduction during screening • Save time – – – – Design one set of universal PCR primers Transform only once, use the same strain for cloning and expression Clone into ready-to-use vectors, without PCR product clean-up Clone without enzymes or incubations • Optimize as you like – Fine-tune expression with highly responsive promoter – Adjust autoinduction timing and levels Solubility & Expression Screening Workflow “Gene to Protein” in as Few as 4 Days Day 1 Design one set of PCR primers for each gene of interest. Amplify your gene(s). Combine: PCR product(s) + Expresso vector + competent cells Transform E. coli. Day 2 Start cultures for expression (same E. coli strain). Day 3 Evaluate target protein expression and solubility. Day 4 Purify protein (Ni2+) and remove fusion tags with SelecTEV™ Protease. Characterize soluble protein. pSOL™ Expression Vectors Universal design allows simplified cloning • Screen seven fusion partners with one amplicon • Small size ~2.3kb (base vector) • RhaPBAD promoter allows tunable expression • 6xHis tag for purification • Protease cleavage site for tag removal • Kanamycin selection reduces satellite colonies • Low copy for increased stability Seven Fusion Tags and Control Included Three novel tags, four known tags ONLY kit with a panel of fusion tags Question #3 Poll Question Which solubility / expression enhancing fusion tags have you found to be most effective in E. coli? Choose all that apply. Workflow Steps PCR and Cloning (Day 1) 1. Amplify gene of interest with 18bp Expresso® overhangs: 5’-AAT CTG TAC TTC CAG GGT XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX …-3’ 5’-GTG GCG GCC GCT CTA TTA XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX …-3’ 2. 3. Check PCR product on agarose gel If PCR reaction yields a single, robust product, combine: – – – 4. 2 µL PCR product 2 µL pSOL™ Vector 1 aliquot (40 µL) 10G Chemically Competent Cells Proceed with transformation and plate on kanamycin plates Workflow Steps Colony screen and overnight cultures (Day 2) 1. PCR screen colonies with universal primers provided – For long targets, use 1 vector primer & 1 target specific primer 2. Start overnight cultures from positives 17 of 18 colonies correct Expresso® cloning is highly efficient 24 of 24 colonies correct Workflow Steps Standard induction (Days 2 and 3) Modulate expression levels by varying rhamnose concentrations 1. Start 2 mL overnight cultures from PCRverified colonies 2. Harvest 1 mL overnight culture, prep DNA and prepare a glycerol stock (optional) 3. Use 30 µL overnight culture to inocculate 3 mL of fresh medium 4. Add rhamnose to 0.2% @ OD600 = 0.5 5. Harvest after ~4 hours • Use lower concentrations of rhamnose for difficult, insoluble or toxic proteins (0.001% to 0.1%) Protein Expression Levels are Responsive to Rhamnose Concentrations Between 0.001% & 0.2% Workflow Steps Autoinduction (Days 2 and 3) Alter glucose concentration for toxic targets • • • Autoinduction uses glucose to repress the rhaPBAD promoter Cells preferentially utilize glucose during early growth rhaPBAD promoter is only activated after glucose depletion Early Autoinduction Late Autoinduction Hours 0 6 8 10 24 0 6 8 10 24 1. Start 4-5 mL overnight cultures from colonies with glucose and rhamnose 2. Harvest 1 mL overnight culture for DNA prep and glycerol stock (optional) 3. Harvest 10 OD600 units of overnight culture for expression analysis Autoinduction Method % Glucose % Rhamnose Early 0.05% 0.2% Late 0.15% 0.2% Late autoinduction: Start autoinduction cultures with more glucose (repressor) to delay protein expression Build up more biomass before induction begins to produce higher yields Rhamnose Promoter Allows Toxic Gene Expression Lymphostatin (lifA) E. coli virulence factor • • • • • • Produced by most enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic E. coli Required for host intestinal colonization Inhibits proliferation of T cells 365 kD (one of the largest bacterial toxins known) Unstable in recombinant form, low expression1,2 Successfully produced with rhamnose promoter3 – Glucose repression at 37oC to OD600 = 0.8 – Induced with 0.2% rhamnose, 3 hour induction, 30oC • • Generated functional mutants Cloned and expressed homolog ToxB in same system4 – Induced with 0.2% rhamnose, 20 hours at 20oC 1. 2. 3. 4. Klapproth, Infect. Immun., 2000 Janka, Int.J.Med. Micro. 2000 Cassady-Cain, J.Biol.Chem. 2016 Cassady-Cain, Infect. Immun, 2017 Figure 1c, LifA, gel and Western blot3 Figure 8, LifA, ToxB4 Workflow Steps Evaluate expression and solubility (Day 3 or 4) pSol™ Fusion T S I 6xHis Control T S Analysis by SDS-PAGE: • I • • • • • • • Grow E. coli clones containing recombinant gene of interest, induce expression • Take sample of uninduced cell culture, if applicable Harvest cells by centrifugation Resuspend cell pellet in sonication buffer • Choice of protease inhibitors • Include reducing reagent (DTT) • Keep purification requirements in mind Lyse cells by sonication • Take sample of Total protein Fractionate lysate by centrifugation • Take sample of Soluble protein from supernatant • Resuspend Insoluble pellet in SDS-PAGE sample buffer Analyze fractions by SDS-PAGE and determine which fraction(s) contain your protein of interest. Compare solubility and expression to the control (6xHis ONLY) sample Determine which pSol Fusion clone to proceed to tag removal and protein characterization experiments Fusion Partners Can Rescue Expression & Solubility Example: GH1 (human growth hormone) T = total protein, S = soluble protein, I = insoluble protein Results: • SlyD, Tsf, SUMO, Bla, and MBP enhanced solubility (Lane S), compared to control • SlyD, Tsf, Bla and MBP also enhanced expression (Lane T) Different Tags Rescue Different Proteins Example: mammalian nuclease inhibitor T = total protein, S = soluble protein, I = insoluble protein Results: • Tsf and MBP provided modest solubility improvement (Lane S), compared to control • AFV, slyD, Tsf, SUMO, Bla, MBP and GST improved expression (Lane T) • Co-migrating E. coli bands obscure AFV and slyD solubility results (Lane S) Fusion Partners May Help Expression OR Solubility Example: AflIII (restriction enzyme) T = total protein, S = soluble protein, I = insoluble protein Results: • AFV, slyD, Tsf, SUMO and MBP enhanced expression (Lane T), compared to control • No tags significantly enhanced solubility (Lane T) Panel of Tags Helps Identify Common Problems Example: DNA modification enzyme T = total protein, S = soluble protein, I = insoluble protein Results: • Tsf and MBP enhanced solubility (Lane S), compared to control • No tags significantly enhanced solubility (Lane T) • Rapid degradation to smaller product seen with all tags and control Evaluating Fusion Partners for Efficacy Preferred tags were selected from a larger panel • In one experiment, 8 GOI’s were tested with 12 fusion partners • Each combination was evaluated for solubility and expression enhancements • Tags that performed well moved forward in development Importance of Screening Multiple Fusion Tags Tags Vary in Their Ability to Solve Specific Problems In Order of Best Results • Proteins react differently to different fusion tags • In our experience with 24+ targets tested internally, some Expresso® fusion tags were better at solving expression challenges: • These results are based on a subset of proteins known in the literature to be difficult to express recombinantly. • Results may differ for different protein targets. Cloning and Transformation Options Scale for single or multiple targets 10G Chemically Competent Cells, 96-well plates: 10G Chemically Competent Cells: • • • • • • • • • • • Thaw cells on ice (plate can be divided into 4 x 24 wells) Add: – 2 µl (25 ng) Expresso® pSOL vector – 1 µl (at least 5 ng) PCR product Cover and incubate 20 minutes on ice Heat shock 20 sec at 42°C (thermal cycler) Incubate on ice, 1 minute. Add 180 µl of room-temperature Recovery Medium and mix. Cover plate and incubate at 37°C for 1 hour (thermal cycler). Shaking is not necessary. Plate kanamycin selective media. pSol 1 pSol 2 pSol 3 pSol 4 pSol 5 pSol 6 pSol 7 pSol 8 Target 1 2 3 Q-tray • • • • • • Thaw cells on ice Transfer cells to a 15 mL polypropylene tube Add: – 2 µl (25 ng) Expresso® pSol vector – 1-3 µl (25 - 100 ng) PCR product Incubate 30 minutes on ice Heat shock 45 sec at 42°C (water bath) Incubate on ice, 2 minutes. Add 960 µl of room-temperature Recovery Medium and mix. Cover plate and incubate at 37°C for 1 hour with shaking, 250 rpm. Plate on kanamycin selective media. Expresso® Cloning and Expression is Scalable Example: functional annotation • • Fibrobacter succogines – rumen bacterium that digests cellulose Whole genome sequencing revealed subset of 48 enzymes of interest • • • • 96-well PCR amplification and cloning 96-well expression induction 96-well assay directly on induced lysates Also generated shotgun expression library in Expresso® vector, screened for enzyme activity Over 400 proteins produced Brumm, Appl Biochem Biotechnol, Aug 2010 Suen, PLoS ONE, Apr 2011 Successful High-Throughput Screening with Expresso® Test Seven Tags. Re-order the Ones that Work for You. • Clone your target(s) into seven fusion tag vectors, plus the control vector, which contains a 6xHis tag only. • Compare protein expression and solubility between the control vector and the seven fusion tags. • If you find that some tags work better than others for your proteins, we will provide those specific Expresso® fusion tag vectors as custom products (at larger scales, if desired). • Contact [email protected] Custom Solutions Cloning and Expression Workflow Tips for success Cloning: • Avoid background in your cloning step. If the gene to be amplified is carried on a kanamycin-resistant plasmid: – Gel purify the PCR product before cloning – Treat the PCR product with Dpn1 before cloning – Linearize the template plasmid with a restriction enzyme • Use chemically competent cells. Expresso cloning is not compatible with electrocompetent cells. • Maximize your transformation efficiency. Transfer the cells + DNA to 15 mL polypropylene culture tubes before heat shock for optimal heat transfer. Expression Screening: • Measure the growth rate of your transformed strain (before and after induction) vs the growth rate of the parental, untransformed strain. – If the growth rate changes significantly after induction, you may be seeing toxicity. Expression and Expression Workflow Tips for success Expression Screening: • If you suspect toxicity: – Try a gradient of rhamnose concentrations – Perform an autoinduction with increased amounts of glucose to increase cell density prior to induction – Lower growth temperature (20oC to 30oC) – note that slowing cell growth rate may require longer induction protocols • If the protein is insoluble: – Decrease rhamnose concentration, 0.001% to 0.1% – Lower the growth temperature • Assay your protein as early in the process as you can. • Unlike T7 promoters, the rhamnose promoter is active and inducible in almost any E. coli strain. – Clones can be transferred to other favorite strains for expression studies (BL21 or other ompT strain) Summary Expresso® Solubility & Expression Screening System Feature Problem Solved Tight control of background expression, reducing toxicity Increases expression levels Tunable expression controls toxicity resulting from overexpression Increases expression levels and protein solubility Novel and known solubility tags Enhances protein solubility N-terminal fusion tags help to overcome codon bias and enhance protein folding May increase expression levels Panel of vectors allows screening of multiple tags and custom formatting Choice of effective fusion tag(s) as a custom product Single E. coli strain for cloning and expression (Lucigen E. cloni® 10G Chemically Competent Cells) Simple workflow, saves time Optional autoinduction protocol Simple workflow Fusion tags are cleavable with SelecTEV™ Protease Facilitates downstream analysis and characterization Expresso® Solubility & Expression Screening System Flexible kit conformations Cat No. Accura® Polymerase 49060-1 49064-1 49062-1 49066-1 √ √ pSol™ Vectors E. cloni 10G Cells SelecTEV™ Protease √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ SelecTEV™ Protease and Accura® Polymerase are available separately. FailSafe™ PCR System Reliable hi-fi amplification for every template • Twelve 2x high fidelity PCR PreMixes • Each PreMix contains dNTPs, buffer, different concentrations of Mg+2 and Epicentre's proprietary PCR Enhancer (with Betaine) • Perform PCR reactions to find the PreMix that amplifies your target Amplification of an 80%-85% GC-rich region of the human fragile X gene. Protease Tag Cleavage Question #3 Poll Question Which protease do you prefer, when removing a fusion tag from your protein of interest? Choose all that apply. When Should Fusion Partners Be Removed? It’s all about your downstream application • Many proteins retain structure & function with a fusion partner, but results are hard to predict • Crystallography: large fusion partner removal is recommended, but peptide tag removal may not be necessary • Enzymology, biochemical or other activity assays: remove fusions whenever possible – Assay the protein first – if it’s active in your application, tag removal may not be necessary • Large-scale production, therapeutic use: tag removal is often recommended • Know your termini: Intended Use of Fusion Terminus Solubility or expression enhancements N-terminus Fusion must be removed N-terminus Affinity purification or detection N- or C-terminus Fusion Partner Cleavage and Protein Recovery Many options for fusion tag removal Protease Enterokinase Thrombin Factor Xa SUMO TEV Molecular Weight 31 kDa 36.7 kDa Cleavage Recognition Site DDDDK / LVPR / GS 43 kDa I(E/D)GR / 26 kDa tertiary structure 27 kDa ENLYFQ / G Residual N-terminal Amino Acids None Two: Gly-Ser None None One: Gly Specificity Activity and Reaction Conditions Notes √√ Incompatible with reducing reagents Does not cleave proteins Pro in P1’ position √ No reducing reagents, 45oC rxn Very promiscuous √√ Incompatible with EDTA/EGTA Does not cleave proteins with Pro or Arg in P1’ √√√ Wide range of pH conditions Some limitations with residue in P1’ √√√ Wide range of pH and salt conditions Wellcharacterized • P1’ position: amino acid immediately following the cleavage site • Larger aromatic amino acids (e.g. Proline) at this position can cause steric hindrance • Amino acids with smaller side chains are preferred (Gly, Ser) SelecTEV™ and SUMO Express Protease Simplify tag cleavage with 6xHis-tagged protease Target Purification and Tag Removal 1) Express and purify tagged target protein by IMAC (e.g. Ni2+ column). Purified tagged protein 6xHis Protease Cleavage Site + 2) Dialyze or desalt to remove imidazole. 3) Add 6xHis-tagged Protease and incubate. 4) Remove 6xHis-SUMO tag and SUMO Express Protease by subtractive IMAC. 5) Recover purified protein from the column flow-through. Target Protein Untagged protein 6xHis Protease 6xHis Protease Target Protein Protease Cleavage Site + + Purified untagged protein 6xHis Subtractive IMAC Target Protein 6xHis Tagged SelecTEV™ Protease Engineered for improved stability and activity • • • • • Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) protease Recognizes Glu-Asn-Leu-Tyr-Phe-Gln / Gly Active from pH 6.0 to 8.5 Optimum temperature 30oC, active at 4oC to 30oC Tolerates up to 0.5M Urea Cleavage and Purification of GH1 1, 2: Before and after SelecTEV cleavage 3, 4: Subtractive IMAC. Column flow through and wash, showing untagged GH1 5: Column elution, showing fusion tag and 6xHis-tagged protease. 6xHis Tagged SUMO Express Protease Optimized for stabilized SUMO tag cleavage • • • • • • • • SUMO Express is specifically engineered to cleave the modified SUMO tag in the Expresso® SUMO Cloning and Expression kits Modified SUMO tag is resistant to eukaryotic desumoylation enzymes Stabilized tag allows expression of SUMO fusion proteins in insect or mammalian Transfer your fusion to a mammalian system and retain the benefits of the SUMO tag - + P Exhibits reduced reactivity with native SUMO sequences Optimal reaction conditions: – pH 8.0 (active from pH 6.0 to 10.0) -, +: with / without – 30oC (active from 4oC to 37oC) SUMO Express Protease – Salt concentrations below 500 mM P: purified target – Non-ionic detergents OK at 1% protein after Tolerates up to 2 M urea subtractive IMAC Tolerates up to 0.5M guididine HCl SUMO Express and SelecTEV™ Proteases Best practices • When possible, choose a protease with a molecular weight significantly different from your protein, so you can easily check for tag removal by SDS PAGE. • TEV protease tolerates protease inhibitors PMSF and AEBSF. • Use proteases at the recommended concentration first, then optimize if needed. Using higher concentrations can lead to nonspecific cleavage. • Optimize the temperature and length of incubation. Remove samples at various time-points and analyze them by SDS- PAGE. • When calculating column capacity for subtractive IMAC, remember to account for the 6xHis-tagged fragments released by protease incubation, which will also bind to the resin. • DTT can cause leaching from some nickel resins. Test your IMAC resin to ensure compatibility with the DTT concentration in the recommended protease reaction buffer. If needed, dilute your sample before loading to reduce DTT concentration. Fusion Tag Cleavage Optimization • Incomplete tag cleavage: – Add more enzyme – Incubate for longer time period (e.g., 4oC overnight) – Dialyze your protein to remove potential inhibitors (interfering detergents, imidazole) • ‘False solubility’ = removing the tag leads to precipitated protein. – More common with larger (>100 KD) proteins, or proteins with large hydrophobic patches – Test other fusion constructs that exhibit apparent solubility – Vary pH and salt conditions during purification and after tag cleavage – Use a buffer that differs from the pI by +0.5 pH units (avoid pH <6.0) Expression System and Protease Guide Fusion partner removal for Expresso® systems Application Requirements Recommended System Fusion Partners Terminus Tag Removal? Protease Included? Accepts one add’l Gly residue on N-terminus Expresso Solubility and Expression Screening System 6xHis plus Fusion partner for expression & solubility Nterminus SelecTEV™ Protease Optional 6xHis tag acceptable Expresso T7 Cloning and Expression System 6xHis Choice of N- or Cterminus No No Native protein ONLY – no extra amino acids Expresso T7 SUMO Cloning and Expression System 6xHis - SUMO Nterminus SUMO Express Protease Yes 6xHis tag acceptable Expresso Rhamnose Cloning and Expression System 6xHis Choice of N- or Cterminus No No Native protein ONLY – no extra amino acids Expresso Rhamnose SUMO Cloning and Expression System 6xHis - SUMO Nterminus SUMO Express Protease Yes Resources Poster: http://bit.ly/expresso-poster Nature Methods: http://bit.ly/nature-methods-expresso-rhamnose http://bit.ly/nature-methods-expresso Application Notes: http://bit.ly/expresso-app-note Questions? www.lucigen.com Thank You! 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