title: Salt-Dependent Conditional Protein Splicing of an Intein from Halobacterium salinarum.
abstract: An intein from Halobacterium salinarum can be isolated as an unspliced precursor protein with exogenous exteins after Escherichia coli overexpression. The intein promotes protein splicing and uncoupled N-terminal cleavage in vitro, conditional on incubation with NaCl or KCl at concentrations of >1.5 M. The protein splicing reaction also is conditional on reduction of a disulfide bond between two active site cysteines. Conditional protein splicing under these relatively mild conditions may lead to advances in intein-based biotechnology applications and hints at the possibility that this H. salinarum intein could serve as a switch to control extein activity under physiologically relevant conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross , Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Julie N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Reitter
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross , Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Christopher E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Cousin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross , Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Nicastri
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross , Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Mario V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Jaramillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of the Holy Cross , Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, United States.
authors.forename: Kenneth V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Mills
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D019617:Halobacterium salinarum / Q000502:physiology*; D047668:Inteins / Q000502:physiology*; D019154:Protein Splicing / Q000502:physiology*; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins