Background: Heterologous expression of active, native-folded protein in Escherichia coli is critical in both academic research and biotechnology settings. When expressing non-native recombinant proteins in E. coli, obtaining soluble and active protein can be challenging. Numerous techniques can be used to enhance a proteins solubility, and largely focus on either altering the expression strain, plasmid vector features, growth conditions, or the protein coding sequence itself. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing issues with protein solubility, and it can be both time and labor intensive to find a solution. An alternative approach is to use the co-expression of chaperones to assist with increasing protein solubility. By designing a genetic system where protein solubility is linked to viability, the appropriate protein folding factor can be selected for any given protein of interest. To this end, we developed a Split Antibiotic Selection (SAS) whereby an insoluble protein is inserted in-frame within the coding sequence of the hygromycin B resistance protein, aminoglycoside 7″-phosphotransferase-Ia (APH(7″)), to generate a tripartite fusion. By creating this tripartite fusion with APH(7″), the solubility of the inserted protein can be assessed by measuring the level of hygromycin B resistance of the cells.
Results: We demonstrate the functionality of this system using a known protein and co-chaperone pair, the human mitochondrial Hsp70 ATPase domain (ATPase70) and its co-chaperone human escort protein (Hep). Insertion of the insoluble ATPase70 within APH(7'') renders the tripartite fusion insoluble and results in sensitivity to hygromycin B. Antibiotic resistance can be rescued by expression of the co-chaperone Hep which assists in the folding of the APH(7'')-ATPase70-APH(7'') tripartite fusion and find that cellular hygromycin B resistance correlates with the total soluble fusion protein. Finally, using a diverse chaperone library, we find that SAS can be used in a pooled genetic selection to identify chaperones capable of improving client protein solubility.
Conclusions: The tripartite APH(7'') fusion links the in vivo solubility of the inserted protein of interest to hygromycin B resistance. This construct can be used in conjunction with a chaperone library to select for chaperones that increase the solubility of the inserted protein. This selection system can be applied to a variety of client proteins and eliminates the need to individually test chaperone-protein pairs to identify those that increase solubility.
Keywords: Chaperones; E. coli; Genetic selection; Recombinant protein expression.
© 2024 The Authors.