A highly effective and adjustable dual plasmid system for O-GlcNAcylated recombinant protein production in E-coli

作者:Han Cuifang*; Shan Hui; Bi Chuanlin; Zhang Xinling; Qi Jieqiong; Zhang Boyuan; Gu Yuchao; Yu Wengong
来源:Journal of Biochemistry, 2015, 157(6): 477-484.
DOI:10.1093/jb/mvv006

摘要

O-GlcNAcylation is a ubiquitous, dynamic and reversible post-translational protein modification in metazoans, and it is catalysed and removed by O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase, respectively. Prokaryotes lack endogenous OGT activity. It has been reported that coexpression of mammalian OGT with its target substrates in Escherichia coli produce O-GlcNAcylated recombinant proteins, but the plasmids used were not compatible, and the expression of both OGT and its target protein were induced by the same inducer. Here, we describe a compatible dual plasmid system for coexpression of OGT and its target substrate for O-GlcNAcylated protein production in E. coli. The approach was validated using the CKII and p53 protein as control. This compatible dual plasmid system contains an arabinose-inducible OGT expression vector with a pUC origin and an isopropyl beta-d-thiogalactopyranoside-inducible OGT target substrate expression vector bearing a p15A origin. The dual plasmid system produces recombinant proteins with varying O-GlcNAcylation levels by altering the inducer concentration. More importantly, the O-GlcNAcylation efficiency was much higher than the previously reported system. Altogether, we established an adjustable compatible dual plasmid system that can effectively yield O-GlcNAcylated proteins in E. coli.