A novel strategy for enhancing extracellular secretion of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013 Aug;97(15):6705-13. doi: 10.1007/s00253-013-4994-7. Epub 2013 May 31.

Abstract

Secretion of cytoplasmic expressed proteins into culture medium has significant commercial advantages in large-scale production of proteins. Our previous study demonstrated that the membrane permeability of Escherichia coli could be significantly improved when Thermobifida fusca cutinase, without a signal peptide, was expressed in cytoplasm. This study investigated the extracellular production of other recombinant proteins, including both secretory and cytosolic proteins, with co-expression of cutinase. When the secretory enzymes, xylanase and α-amylase, were co-expressed with cutinase, the culture period was shortened by half, and the productivity was 7.9 and 2.0-fold to that of their individual control without co-expression, respectively. When the normally cytosolic proteins, xylose isomerase and trehalose synthase, were co-expressed with cutinase, more than half of the target proteins were "secreted" into the culture medium. Moreover, by using β-galactosidase to detect membrane leakage, the improved secretion of the above model proteins was confirmed not to be due to cell lysis. The study provides a novel strategy for enhancing extracellular secretion of recombinant proteins in E. coli.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Biomass
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Culture Media
  • Cytosol / enzymology
  • DNA Primers
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism*
  • Glucosyltransferases / genetics
  • Glucosyltransferases / metabolism
  • Isomerases / genetics
  • Isomerases / metabolism
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • alpha-Amylases / genetics
  • alpha-Amylases / metabolism

Substances

  • Culture Media
  • DNA Primers
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Glucosyltransferases
  • trehalose synthase
  • alpha-Amylases
  • Isomerases