Patent Application: US-45223208-A

Abstract:
an expression system for transforming e coll with a nucleic acid molecule of interest has an operator sequence of a cmt operon operatively linked to a promoter for the operator , and , a repressor sequence from a cym operon operatively linked to a promoter for the repressor . the expression system may have a nucleic acid molecule of interest , for example , a nucleic acid molecule that encodes a protein . any type of e coll host cells may be transformed with the expression system . a method of producing a protein involves transforming an e coll host cell with the expression system having a nucleic acid molecule that codes for a protein , and , culturing the host cell in a culture medium under conditions in which the nucleic acid molecule will express the protein .

Description:
bacterial strains and growth conditions . the bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study are listed in table 1 . e . coli strains dh5α , s17 - 1 λ / pir , k12 , top10 , and bl21 ( de3 ), were used for the heterologous gene expression host . especially , e . coli strain top10 was used for cloning and propagation of recombinant dna and some target protein expression host . e . coli was cultured in luria bertani broth ( lb ) at 37 ° c . and media were solidified by 1 . 8 % agar ( difco ) when appropriate . antibiotics were used at the following concentrations ( in μg / ml ): ampicillin , 100 ; kanamycin ( km ), 50 ; tetracyclin ( tc ), 35 . benchtop fermentations . batch fermentation experiments were carried out in a 14 - i bioreactor ( bioflo 110 , new brunswick scientific , edison , n . j . usa ) to compare gfp production yield between t7 expression system and cumate system . for the batch culture , pre - cultures were used to inoculate the bioreactor filled with 5 l of medium a ( yoon et al , 2003 ) and initial o . d . was adjusted to 0 . 1 for both expression systems . the cultures induced with iptg for t7 system and cumate for cumate system when o . d . reached at 38 to 42 . for cultures carried out in bioreactors , ph and dissolved oxygen were controlled at 7 and 25 %, respectively . construction of expression vector . the operator sequence of cmt operon from p . putida f1 was introduced downstream of the phage t5 promoter ( bujard , et al . 1987 ) by polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ). the pnew regulative expression vector was obtained in several steps : first , the p t5 synthetic operator sequence ( op )- gfp was pcr - amplified from pcum - gfp ( choi , et al . 2006 ) using primers t5 - op - f - sac ( 5 ′- c ga gct c aa atc ata aaa aat tta ttt gct ttg tga gcg gat aac aat tat aat aga ttc aac aaa cag aca atc tgg tct gtt tgt att at - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 1 ) ( the saci site is underlined , partial t5 promoter is boxed and operator site is in bold ) and gfp - sph - r ( 5 ′- c gc atg c tc agt tgt aca gtt cat cca tgc c - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 2 ) ( the sphi site is underlined ). the 954 bp pcr fragment containing p t5 - operator - gfp was cloned into pcr2 . 1 to create pcr - t5op . next , a 954 bp saci - sphi fragment from pcr - t5op was then ligated between the saci - sphi sites of pet36 ( novagen ) to form pnew - pre . subsequently , the p km - cymr was amplified by pcr from pbri - cymr1 ( choi et al . 2006 ) using primers pkm - cym - mlu - f ( 5 ′- c ac gcg t cc gga att gcc agc tgg ggc gcc ctc tgg taa ggt tgg gaa gcc ctg caa agt aaa ctg gat ggc ttt ctt gcc gcc aag gat ctg atg gcg cag ggg atc aag atc tga tca aga gac agg atg agg atc gtt tcg caa gat ggt gat cat gag tcc aaa gag aag aac aca g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 3 ) ( the mlui site is underlined ) and cym - pci - r ( 5 ′- c ac atg t ct agc gct tga att tcg cgt acc gct ctc - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 4 ) ( the pcii site is underlined ). the pcr product containing p km - cymr was then cloned into pcr2 . 1 to create pcr - pkm - cymr , and mlui - pcii fragment from pcr - p km - cymr was ligated to the pnew - pre digested by the same enzymes to generate pnew - gfp . other reporter gene cloning . in order to validate heterologous protein production using newly developed cumate switch system ( pnew system ), we have tested gfp , polyhydroxyalkanoic acids synthetase ( phac1 and phac2 ), lactase , esterase and synthetic thrombin inhibitory peptides . to clone phac1 and phac2 genes from pseudomonas fluorescens gk13 , the genomic dna was isolated , and the chromosome was subjected to pcr using the primers phac1fnhe ( 5 ′- c gc tag c at gag caa caa gaa caa tga aga cct gca gcg c - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 5 ) ( the nhei site is underlined ), phac1rmfe ( 5 ′- g ca att g tc aac gtt cgt gga cat agg tcc ctg g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 6 ) ( the mfei site is underlined ), for phac1 and phac2fnhe ( 5 ′- c gc tag c at gcg aga gm aca ggt gtc ggg agc ctt g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 7 ) ( the nhei site is underlined ), phac2rcla ( 5 ′- g ca att g tc agc gca cgt gca cgt agg tgc cgg g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 8 ) ( the clai site is underlined ) for phac2 to obtain 1680 - bp and 1683 - bp pcr products , respectively . the pcr products were digested with nhei and mfei ( phac1 ) and with nhei and clai ( phac2 ), and cloned into pnew - gfp digested with same restriction enzymes to generate pnew - phac1 and pnew - phac2 , respectively . the 2 , 100 bp fragment carrying the lactase gene ( bgl ) from bifidobacterium infantis was amplified from pebig4 ( hung et al . 2001 ) using primers bgl - f - nhe ( 5 ′- c gc tag c at gga aca tag agc gtt caa gtg g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 9 ) ( the nhei site is underlined ) and bgl - r - sac ( 5 ′- c ga gct c tt aca gct tga cga cga gta cgc cg - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 10 ) ( the saci site is underlined ). for the amplification of esterase gene ( 1 , 800 bp , esti ) from lactobacillus casei , pcesta ( choi , et al . 2004 ) was used as a template with primers est - f - nhe ( 5 ′- c gc tag c at gga tca atc taa aac aaa tca aaa c - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 11 ) ( the nhei site is underlined ) and est - r - sac ( 5 ′- c ga gct c tt att tat ttg taa tac cgt ctg c - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 12 ) ( the saci site is underlined ). these nhei - saci fragments of bgl and est were then replaced with a gfp gene in the pnew - gfp to form pnew - bgl and pnew - est , respectively . to amplify synthetic thrombin inhibitor peptide encoding gene with carrier protein ( sfc120 ), ptsn - 6a ( osborne et al ., 2003 ) was used as a template with primers mfh - fnhe ( 5 ′- c gc tag c at ggc aac ttc aac taa aaa att ac - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 13 ) ( the nhei site is underlined ) and mfh - rmfe ( 5 ′- g ca att g tt att gta aat act ctt ctg gaa tcg g - 3 ′) ( seq id no : 14 ) ( the mfei site is underlined ). the pcr product was digested with nhei and mfei and the 456 bp fragment encoding carrier protein with synthetic thrombin inhibitor peptide was cloned into pnew - gfp digested with same restriction enzymes to generate pnew - mfh . host cell transformation and gene expression . pnew vectors harbouring different genes of interest were transformed into various e . coli cells by chemical or electroporation methods ( sambrook and russell , 2000 ). the transformed cells were grown at 37 ° c . in lb medium , and expression of genes under developed system was induced with 20 μg / ml cumate or as indicated . detection of gene expression . detection of gfp was carried out by fluorescence microscopy , and quantified by using a spectrafluor plus ( tecan austria gmbh , grodïg , austria ) under excitation and emission wavelengths of 485 and 508 nm , respectively . concentration of gfp was calculated based on a linear relationship between concentration and fluorescence units determined using solutions of purified gfp ( qbiogene ). the biomass ( x ) was determined by cell dry weight measurement of the samples ( moisture analyzer ma 30 , sartorius ). esterase activity was determined by a spectrophotometric method using paranitrophenyl caprylate ( pnp - caprylate ) as substrate . the rate of hydrolysis of pnp - caprylate at 37 ° c . was measured in 50 mm sodium phosphate buffer ( ph 7 . 0 ) according to the method described previously ( kademi et al ., 1999 ). one unit of activity was defined as the amount of enzyme that liberated 1 μmol of p - nitrophenol per min under the given assay conditions . the β - galactosidase activity was measured with o - nitrophenol - β - d - galactoside ( onpg ) as a substrate and one unit of activity was defined as the amount of enzyme that liberated 1 μmol of o - nitrophenol per min ( sambrook and russel , 2000 ). the protein concentration was estimated by the method of bradford ( bradford , 1976 ) using the bio - rad protein assay kit with bovine serum albumin as a standard . western blotting . integrative expression of repressor protein ( cymr ) was determined by western blotting using standard protocol . cymr was detected with rabbit anti - bcymr # 422 antibody ( 0 . 1 g ml − 1 ) and a goat anti - rabbit igg ( h + l ) hrp conjugate ( 0 . 1 μg ml − 1 ; pierce cat # 31460 , west grove , pa .). cells were lysed in sds - page sample buffer . the basic mechanism of the cumate regulated gene expression in e . coli is depicted in fig1 . fig1 shows a schematic diagram of the mechanism of action of the cumate - switchable expression system . ( a ) in the absence of a cumate , inducer , the repressor protein ( cymr ) is bound to the operator site upstream of the reporter gene or gene of interest , and block the transcription . ( b ) the presence of the cumate is necessary for transcription of gene of interest . the addition of cumate rapidly alters the inactive conformation ( operator - cymr ), facilitating the formation of the cymr - cumate complex and detached the cymr from the operator , and activating transcription of the downstream reporter gene . the cymr - cumate complex is unable to bind to operator site . development of regulated expression vector pnew - gfp . to develop a new generation of tightly regulated e . coli expression vectors , we applied t5 promoter - cumate operator carrying vector in cooperation with cymr repressor encoding gene in the same plasmid ( fig2 ). validation of the developed expression system in e . coli hosts . since t5 promoter is recognized by e . coli rna polymerase , developed expression vectors can be applied to any type of e . coli strain , as shown in fig3 . fig3 a depicts plate assays , while fig3 b depicts liquid culture assays in culture tubes . in fig3 , the regulated expression of gfp ( green fluorescent protein ) in various e . coli strains as host is depicted . in fig3 b , tube # 1 contains e . coli dh5α , tube # 2 contains e . coli s17 - 1 λ / pir , tube # 3 contains e . coli k12 , tube # 4 contains e . coli top10 , and tube # 5 contains e . coli bl21 ( de3 ). heterologous gene expression . the performance or the cumate - regulated expression system was examined with various proteins as reporter . fig4 depicts a comparison between t7 system and cumate system for gfp expression in plates containing iptg ( 1 mm ) and cumate ( 0 . 12 mm ) as inducer , respectively . it is evident from fig4 that the cumate systems dramatically outperforms the iptg system for expressing gfp in host cells . expression of polyhydroxyalkanoic acids synthetase ( phac1 and phac2 ) genes in e . coli top10 genes encoding phac1 and c2 were amplified from pseudomonas fluorescens gk13 and cloned into e . coli top10 using cumate expression system . amplified genes were successfully expressed in e . coli top 10 , and recombinant e . coli top 10 produced phb - like granules as shown in fig5 . fig5 depicts a physical map of pnew - phac1 , 2 and microscopic observation of the recombinant strains upon cumate induction ( 0 . 12 mm ). production of esterase using cumate expression system in e . coli fig6 depicts heterologous gene expression of esterase in e . coli top10 using the cumate expression system of the present invention . recombinant strain was streaked on the plate containing 1 % ( v / v ) tributyrin as a substrate of esterase without and with cumate ( 0 . 12 mm ) as an inducer , respectively . it is evident from fig6 that the cumate expression system was successful at heterologous gene expression of esterase . production of beta - galactosidase using cumate expression system in e . coli top 10 fig7 depicts the expression profile of recombinant β - galactosidase on sds - page . lane m is protein standard marker . lane 1 is the first eluted sample as purified β - galactosidase using ni - nta mini affinity column . lane 2 is the second eluted sample from the same column as lane 1 . lanes 3 and 4 are crude protein samples 1 and 3 hr after induction , respectively . it is evident from fig7 that β - galactosidase has been successfully expressed in e . coli top 10 by the cumate expression system of the present invention . production of synthetic thrombin inhibitor peptide using carrier protein ( sfc120 ) to form fusion peptide in e . coli fig8 depicts the sds - page profile of soluble and insoluble fractions . fusion peptide was produced in the form of inclusion body as expected , and the yield of fusion peptide reached about 85 % of total cellular protein . fig9 a is a photograph of a fermenter with sterilized e . coli cultivation medium to show the original color of the cultivation medium . the original color is a gray / brown . fig9 b is a photograph of two fermenters side - by - side , each fermenter containing cultivation medium and e . coli cells transformed with gfp . the fermenter on the left has the t7 expression system with no iptg added yet . the fermenter in the right has the cumate expression system of the present invention with no cumate added yet . these photographs depict the cultures prior to induction by iptg or cumate . the color of the cultures in each fermenter is the same , a light yellow / brown . fig9 c is a photograph of the fermenters depicted in fig9 b at a time 45 minutes post induction with 100 μm iptg ( t7 system ) and 100 μm cumate ( cumate system ). gfp yields are similar at this stage . the gfp yield for the iptg induced system is 27 mg / g . the gfp yield for the cumate induced system is 30 mg / g . the color is a brighter yellow / green than in fig9 b . fig9 d is a photograph of the fermenters depicted in fig9 b at a time 1 hour post induction with 100 μm iptg ( t7 system ) and 100 μm cumate ( cumate system ). gfp yields remain similar . the gfp yield for the iptg induced system is 37 mg / g . the gfp yield for the cumate induced system is 38 mg / g . the color is a brighter yellow / green than in fig9 c . fig9 e is a photograph of the fermenters depicted in fig9 b at a time 2 hours post induction with 100 μm iptg ( t7 system ) and 100 μm cumate ( cumate system ). at this point , gfp yields begin to differ that the cumate induced culture showing better yield . the gfp yield for the iptg induced system is 74 mg / g . the gfp yield for the cumate induced system is 84 mg / g . the color is green and brighter than the colors in fig9 c . the medium in the fermenter with the cumate system is brighter green than the medium in the t7 system . fig9 f is a photograph of the fermenters depicted in fig9 b at a time 3 hours post induction with 100 μm iptg ( t7 system ) and 100 μm cumate ( cumate system ). gfp yield of the cumate induced culture is markedly greater than the iptg induced culture . the gfp yield for the iptg induced system is 90 mg / g . the gfp yield for the cumate induced system is 123 mg / g . the color is even brighter green than in fig9 e and the cumate induced system is brighter green than the iptg induced system . fig1 a and 10b are graphs depicting the time course of gfp yield comparing the t7 system to the cumate system at different concentrations of inducers . for fig1 a , the concentration of inducer was 100 μm , while for fig1 b the concentration of inducer was 1000 μm . after 4 hours post induction , the iptg induced gfp expression reached its maximum , whereas the cumate induced gfp expression continues even after 8 hours post induction ( see also tables 2 & amp ; 3 ). a similar phenomenon occurs when the cultures are induced with 1000 μm iptg or cumate . the cumate induced gfp yield is more than double that of the iptg induced culture . furthermore , in cultures induced with 100 or 1000 μm cumate , expression of the gfp continues even though the culture has reached the stationary phase of growth . in other words , it is a form of resting cell gfp expression . the cumate induced culture remains healthy , no lysis occurred and no foaming was observed in contrast to the iptg induced culture which after 8 hours post induction quickly began to lyse and gfp was released onto the culture medium . table 2 shows results for the specific yield of gfp ( mg / g x ) up to 8 hours of induction for t7 and cumate expression systems in e . coli bl21 ( de3 ) plyss for two inducer concentrations . all results obtained were in defined medium a . the value ‘ x ’ is dry weight in g / l . table 3 shows results for the total yield of gfp ( mg / l ) up to 8 hours of induction for t7 and cumate expression systems in e . coli bl21 ( de3 ) plyss for two inducer concentrations . all results obtained were in defined medium a . the contents of the entirety of each reference listed herein are incorporated by this reference . baneyx , f . 1999 . recombinant protein expression in escherichia coli . curr . opin . biotechnol . 10 : 411 - 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