title: General introduction: recombinant protein production and purification of insoluble proteins.
abstract: Proteins are synthesized in heterologous systems because of the impossibility to obtain satisfactory yields from natural sources. The production of soluble and functional recombinant proteins is among the main goals in the biotechnological field. In this context, it is important to point out that under stress conditions, protein folding machinery is saturated and this promotes protein misfolding and, consequently, protein aggregation. Thus, the selection of the optimal expression organism and the most appropriate growth conditions to minimize the formation of insoluble proteins should be done according to the protein characteristics and downstream requirements. Escherichia coli is the most popular recombinant protein expression system despite the great development achieved so far by eukaryotic expression systems. Besides, other prokaryotic expression systems, such as lactic acid bacteria and psychrophilic bacteria, are gaining interest in this field. However, it is worth mentioning that prokaryotic expression system poses, in many cases, severe restrictions for a successful heterologous protein production. Thus, eukaryotic systems such as mammalian cells, insect cells, yeast, filamentous fungus, and microalgae are an interesting alternative for the production of these difficult-to-express proteins.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Neus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ferrer-Miralles
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saccardo
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Corchero
authors.forename: Zhikun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: García-Fruitós
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D017510:Protein Folding; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins