Expression of eukaryotic membrane proteins in eukaryotic and prokaryotic hosts

Abstract

The production of membrane proteins of high purity and in satisfactory yields is crucial for biomedical research. Due to their involvement in various cellular processes, membrane proteins have increasingly become some of the most important drug targets in modern times. Therefore, their structural and functional characterization is a high priority. However, protein expression has always been more challenging for membrane proteins than for soluble proteins. In this review, we present four of the most commonly-used expression systems for eukaryotic membrane proteins. We describe the benefits and drawbacks of bacterial, yeast, insect and mammalian cells. In addition, we describe the different features (growth rate, yield, post-translational modifications) of each expression system, and how they are influenced by the construct design and modifications of the target gene. Cost-effective and fast-growing E. coli is mostly selected for the production of small, simple membrane proteins that, if possible, do not require post-translational modifications but has the potential for the production of bigger proteins as well. Yeast hosts are advantageous for larger and more complex proteins but for the most complex ones, insect or mammalian cells are used as they are the only hosts able to perform all the post-translational modifications found in human cells. A combination of rational construct design and host cell choice can dramatically improve membrane protein production processes.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2020.06.006
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Biosciences
College of Health & Life Sciences
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Biosciences > Cellular and Molecular Biomedicine
Aston University (General)
Additional Information: © 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords: Molecular Biology,General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
Publication ISSN: 1095-9130
Last Modified: 01 Nov 2024 08:19
Date Deposited: 02 Jul 2020 11:14
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.sci ... 1080?via%3Dihub (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Review article
Published Date: 2020-08-01
Published Online Date: 2020-06-10
Accepted Date: 2020-06-08
Authors: Kesidis, Athanasios (ORCID Profile 0000-0001-7345-2452)
Depping, Peer (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5694-2393)
Lodé, Alexis
Vaitsopoulou, Afroditi
Bill, Roslyn M. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-1331-0852)
Goddard, Alan D. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-4950-7470)
Rothnie, Alice J. (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-4259-7015)

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