Engineering soluble proteins for structural genomics.
Structural genomics has the ambitious goal of delivering three-dimensional structural information on a genome-wide scale. Yet only a small fraction of natural proteins are suitable for structure determination because of bottlenecks such as poor expression, aggregation, and misfolding of proteins, and difficulties in solubilization and crystallization. We propose to overcome these bottlenecks by producing soluble, highly expressed proteins that are derived from and closely related to their natural homologs. Here we demonstrate the utility of this approach by using a green fluorescent protein (GFP) folding reporter assay to evolve an enzymatically active, soluble variant of a hyperthermophilic protein that is normally insoluble when expressed in Escherichia coli, and determining its structure by X-ray crystallography. Analysis of the structure provides insight into the substrate specificity of the enzyme and the improved solubility of the variant.
Pédelacq
Jean-Denis
JD
Bioscience Division, MS-M888, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
Piltch
Emily
E
Liong
Elaine C
EC
Berendzen
Joel
J
Kim
Chang-Yub
CY
Rho
Beom-Seop
BS
Park
Min S
MS
Terwilliger
Thomas C
TC
Waldo
Geoffrey S
GS
D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006801:Humans; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D017510:Protein Folding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D012995:Solubility; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D019624:Thermoproteaceae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics
D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase