Unexpected tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease cleavage of recombinant human proteins

Lauren P Beaumont; Jennifer Mehalko; Adam Johnson; Vanessa E Wall; Dominic Esposito

doi:10.1016/j.pep.2024.106488

Unexpected tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease cleavage of recombinant human proteins

Protein Expr Purif. 2024 Apr 26:220:106488. doi: 10.1016/j.pep.2024.106488. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lauren P Beaumont¹, Jennifer Mehalko¹, Adam Johnson¹, Vanessa E Wall¹, Dominic Esposito²

Affiliations

¹ Protein Expression Laboratory, NCI RAS Initiative, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702, USA.
² Protein Expression Laboratory, NCI RAS Initiative, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702, USA. Electronic address: dom.esposito@nih.gov.

PMID: 38679188
DOI: 10.1016/j.pep.2024.106488

Abstract

The tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease is a commonly used reagent for removal of solubility and purification tags from recombinant proteins and is cited as being highly specific for its canonical cleavage site. Flexibility in some amino acids within this recognition sequence has been described in the literature but researchers generally assume few native human proteins will carry off-target sequences for TEV cleavage. We report here the aberrant cleavage of three human proteins with non-canonical TEV protease cleavage sites and identify broader sequence specificity rules that can be used to predict unwanted cleavage of recombinant proteins. Using these rules, 456 human proteins were identified that could be substrates for unwanted TEV protease cleavage.

Keywords: Recombinant protein; Solubility tags; TEV; Tobacco etch virus protease; protein purification.